Second time round
by SammyHerondale
Summary: Naruto uzumaki, after the fourth great war she is made rokudaime hokage and couldn't be happier. However something happens and she is sent back in time the day of the genin exams. Time-travel. Kakashi x Fem Naruto... and another.
1. Chapter 1

**This had been beta'd by Ankaa Sage, God bless you!**

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The Rokudaime Hokage Uzumaki Naruto, and her Anbu captain, Hawk, also known as Uchiha Sasuke were walking through the Uchiha main house as she paid her respects to the two most loyal shinobi, Uchiha Shisui and Itachi. After the war was over Naruto had their remains sent to different burial grounds near the main compound, away from those who had betrayed their village. "Hey, Sasuke?" She asked as they left the old home of the last Uchiha. He gave no reply as she tried again, "Hawk." she sighed out. "Yes, Lady Hokage." Even though she couldn't see his face, Naruto could tell the teme was smirking behind his mask.

'Bastard' She thought to herself and the gleam in his eyes told her he knew exactly what she was thinking. "Have you ever considered moving back here? I know what happened here was traumatizing, however, I don't think Itachi or the rest of the family would want to see their home so empty and cold." There was a frown of concern on the blondes face as she asked him.

Sasuke did not respond right away, "I have," he admitted softly, "I'm the last of my clan, so being in such a large place as the district on my own seems meaningless and will merely serve as a constant reminder of the dead." 'And my crimes.' went unsaid.

Nodding she noticed they were nearing the district gates, "I remember a time back when we both were just genin," she began softly, "Kakashi-sensei asked what our dreams were? You said to revive your clan and to kill your brother." She raised her hand when he turned to protest. "I know that you regret it, however, if you think this place will be lonely, why not revive your once noble clan?"

Sasuke sighed as they passed the gate and made their way down into the heart of the village. "I honestly don't know what to do. I betrayed Konoha and hurt so many people. To you, I have redeemed myself but to myself and majority of the five nations, I have not. Even if the people do forgive me, how can I start a new clan when I don't believe I deserve it?" he ends though his face did not give away with how ashamed and self-loathing he was feeling.

She was silent for a moment before she grabbed him by the wrist and dragged him back into the district going straight to Itachi's room. She shoved him on the bed and crossed her arms at him before turning around and removing two panels from the wall and took out a scroll and a picture frame. First, she thrust the frame towards the Uchiha and said, "I don't give a rat's ass about what you think on this matter. WHY? Because Itachi gave his life so you could live yours. Not just for you to go through the motions of life. By the rikudou sannin you're twenty! Act like it and take part in the CRA or choose your own females who you wish to have a family with. This is getting old."

Sasuke stared at the picture his best friend was showing him. It was Itachi with Sasuke when they were seven and thirteen respectively. Neither boys knew the picture was taken as Itachi was poking him on the forehead with Shisui leaning against the door frame. A cold stabbing sensation ran through him as he remembered that day and so many others. He unintentionally touched his forehead and was surprised to feel he had no mask. Glaring, he spoke up, "I'm not the only person in Konoha that has a duty to revive their clans. You have the responsibility to revive both the Uzumaki clan and the Namikaze family. And we both know that Tsunade will have every intention of making you her heir, thereby adding the Senju clan to your revival list. Then there is Kakashi, he must revive the Hatake clan as well. I don't see you throwing the CRA onto yourself or Kakashi for that matter. "

Naruto held back a flinch at the unyielding eyes of her best friend, she softly whispered, "This isn't how I planned to tell you, but it seems I have no choice." Pausing she closed her eyes and took in a slow shaky breath, "The two of us do have our clan's to revive however the Hatake clan is not known for sharing, much like your own clan. Then there's no way in hell I'm sharing, foxes do not share-"

"Naruto you're blabbing."

"Kakashi and I have been dating on and off since before the war, and recently we started going out properly but we just never told people." She blurted.

He blinked once. Twice. He shook his head and looked up at the female before him, "You and Kakashi have been dating for years with no one picking up on it including Iruka or Tsunade?" The words sounded foreign but so did the images in his head. "You didn't even tell me! Your best friend!" Though his voice was raised, there was no malice in it. He tried to see Naruto and his sensei, and surprisingly enough he could see it, but that didn't mean he had to like it.

Naruto nodded slowly, "Yeah, well, I couldn't exactly go up to granny Tsunade or Iruka-sensei and say 'hey guys guess what! Me and Kakashi sensei have been seeing each other on and off for a few years now and right now we are dating! Sorry I didn't tell you earlier!' That's the shit that'll either get you killed or a long-winded lecture as you get beaten to a pulp. No, thanks!" Crossing her arms she realized the scroll was still in her hands before tossing it to him. "Oh and about this. I knew the circumstances of the massacre just after seeing you at the peados layout since Itachi came and visited me to tell me some things. Itachi left things for the both of us if we ever needed motivation for anything and there just so happens to be one to motivate you into reviving your clan. Enjoy the read cause I've got-" she was cut off when a loud crash was heard outside and not even two seconds after another crash occurred in the room both ninja were in. Naruto saw a quick flash of light before she collapsed.

* * *

Naruto jerked up and instantly groaned from the pain in the back of her head, as if someone was hitting it with the blunt end of a kunai, and the brightness of the room, nearly as bright as her nine tails mode, she mused, however, once she remembered there was an attack she got up in a sitting position and instantly noticed a few things. One, there was no attack going on. Two, she was not in the Uchiha district anymore. Three, there was significant orange on the floor as well as a mess, pertaining to ramen cups, clothes, scrolls, pens, ink, and plants. Four, she was in, what appeared to be, her old apartment. Five, looking out the window was the Hokage Mountain and there was no sign of Lady Tsunade's nor her own head on it.

Looking in the mirror she had, she saw, what appeared to be, her 12-year-old self before her graduation since she was wearing her old goggles. Naruto may be bad at genjutsu but she figured that was what it had to be so she raised her hands up with the correct hand sign and shouted, "KAI!" Opening her eyes she saw nothing had changed. Finding that odd she decided to pay her favorite fox a visit and ask him what was going on. She had an idea but didn't seem to like it very much. "Kurama, what's going on?"

Ever since the war, Naruto did everything she could to make her mind-scape livelier. Instead of the usual sewer, it was now a field similar to the area she trained for her wind, with a waterfall, trees and lush green field with stone buildings here and there to give it a feel of life. It is as it would seem. **"We are in the past."** Kurama dryly spoke.

 _"How!?"_ she demanded.

Raising a brow, the beast continued. **"I may be an ancient being of chakra, brat, but even I do not know everything."**

 _"The almighty Nine-Tailed Fox Demon admitting not knowing something? I'm shocked."_ she mocked out. Closing his eyes Kurama decided it was best to feign sleep, even if his host knew he was faking. Chuckling to herself, she left her mind-scape to allow him some 'sleep'. Looking around at her own room made her feel nostalgic. She grimaced when she saw herself in the mirror again. Now, Naruto always has and will always love the color orange, however her past self, loved the color too much. She'll have to go shopping for some black and blue clothes to mellow out the orange side of her mirror was her ramen calendar and according to that, it was the day of the academy exams. She wonders whether or not she should show them what she is capable of or not. After giving it some thought, she decides she wouldn't go overboard, simply show them she's not a total idiot. Nodding to herself she made her way to the academy via shunshin just out of sight and slowly made her way inside. As she walked, she noted the changes that had been made to the academy after Pains attack.

There were many cracks in these walls, small, but she noticed. The walls were a different shade of cream as well. The fire symbol looked old and worn out sadly unlike the new polished one that had taken its place. She stopped right outside her old classroom, hesitating. On her way here, she hadn't really thought out what it was she planned on doing. Should she keep my identity and knowledge a secret? Should I change what happened? What if I do change the future and the whole Kaguya, Madara and Obito fiasco doesn't happen? If they don't happen, Sasuke and she won't be able to end the reincarnation of Indra and Ashura like they had before.

Oh sannin what was she supposed to do if she saw Kakashi? For Kami-sama sakes they had been lovers for years now! Well, what's done is done. After all, she had promised Nagato she would end the cycle of hatred. Naruto did it once, she could do it again. Closing her eyes, she took a deep breath and opened them up again just in time for Iruka-sensei to open the door all the way with a tick mark on his forehead before he yelled at her for coming late. Truthfully Naruto wasn't listening, she was too busy noticing the differences between this Iruka and her Iruka. This one's hair was slightly darker, had a few fewer scars and wrinkles around the eyes. She zoned back in when she realized he had dragged her into the room and so she decided now was a good time to interrupt him and make out some lie. "Sorry, Iruka sensei. I had a run-in with a member of the ANBU black ops who was distracted from what he was supposed to tell me because some lady from T&I kept interrupting him saying the old man needed him for some reason. He never did get round to telling me what was wrong though.

 **"That was quite the believable lie if you minus the fact you shouldn't know some of those details brat. Still, a lot more believable than your Hatakes excuses,"** mumbled Kurama out of nowhere.

 _"It's awake again!"_ Naruto mocked once more of the ancient being.

 **"Don't be so loud. Anyway, you had better come up with something to do before you get called out for you test, brat."** Kurama uttered as Naruto felt his slight annoyance through their link.

 _"I won't have to pretend to be an idiot to fail this exam. The results have already been decided throughout the year, the only part that really counts right now is the physical side, and I have every intention of passing that. Actually, can I even do everything I could before? Like my sage mode and stuff like that?"_

 **"From what I feel of our chakra paths, everything seems to be the same as when you were twenty. However, you will have to train your physical body in order to do everything at the same lengths as before. Your physical strength and appearance are that of a twelve-year-old and that will hold us back. We shall do training, demon style"** he smirked into her mind.

She shivered at the mere thought and was about to protest when she was knocked back into reality by the sounds of Iruka yelling. Blinking, she saw he looked even more annoyed than before. Smirking, she decided to start making her changes. She walked up to Iruka and whispered lowly so only him, and perhaps Mizuki could hear her. "Sorry sensei. My tenant was having a little chat with me. Usually, they don't take long in the real world since it's just us in my mind-scape, but that isn't foolproof just yet."

She changed her expression with an innocent smile as she saw both Mizuki and Iruka falter and look between themselves. "Naruto, once this is over I will need you to explain that in further detail. And to Lord Hokage as well. Okay?" Iruka asked and she nodded, making her way up to the back of the room, not looking at any of her old friends just yet.

Looking at Iruka-sensei was one thing, the man was already an adult, however looking at the rookie nine would be a lot harder since all she would be able to see, was most likely the older more matured versions of themselves. **"I see you have already made a change. After all, in your original timeline, it was Mizuki that told you about me, yet here you tell them we have conversations with each other, and apparently quite often as well."**

 _"Well, it was mostly meant to be a scare for Mizuki-sensei, petty but I don't care. As for Iruka-sensei, I do love pranking people and the look on his face was pure gold"_

 **"You are a very good prankster, however, that is not why I spoke again to you."**

 _"Oh? And what, pray tell, is the reason you've summoned upon me, oh great nine tails?"_

 **"You cannot avoid your classmates forever. Sooner or later, preferably sooner, you will have to look at them and deal with it. Better to do it now, so there will be less pain of you missing their future selves."**

 _"I know that Kurama, it's just not that easy, that's all_." They lapsed into a silence, Naruto laying down against Kurama as she thought of the changes she would make and what she planned on keeping the same. _"I plan to make a lot of changes."_ she uttered calmly as they flashed quickly across her mindscape.

 **"That's a long list. What do you plan on keeping the same?"**

 _"I want to still be with Kakashi,"_ she muttered softly thinking of her beloved.

 **"That will not be easy. When you do see him, try not to traumatize him too much."**

 _"I'm sure future Kakashi never truly thought out his plan when we started dating. I'm told mum and dad had tempers and were both very overprotective."_

 **"Your mother would have been okay with it since she knew Kakashi very well, Minato, however, would have given his pupil the third degree, as you call it, and done everything to sabotage the image you had created of the young wolf and had sent him on any and every possible mission out of the village and away from you as he could."**

 _"I can actually see that. The almighty yondaime Hokage, Konoha's yellow flash, youngest Hokage minus myself, slayer of thousands during the third shinobi war, creator of the Rasengan, reduced to a pile of powerlessness by the fact his only child was dating someone, more specifically, his student."_

 **"I would suggest you return to reality, brat, it would seem the test papers have been handed out."**

Doing as he said, she looked down at the paper and started to answer the questions one by one and laughed internally at one of the questions:

 _What is the use of a kunai? A- To paralyze B- to kill C- to cook food._

Who in the five nations would choose C? Even she didn't the first time around and everyone called her an idiot, the dead last. Unless, of course, you plan on eating the person, in which case C would be a valid reason. But you can also paralyze a person with kunai as well by poisoning them like with senbon.

 **"Just finish the test already, woman."** Huffing she continued and finished first, shocking all her classmates. She found it was quite easy to look at team eight and ten, however, she had yet to look towards her two teammates just yet. Iruka took her paper and asked her to quietly sit in the back as the rest finished their papers which 'he' shockingly did. Not many people knew this Narutos' true gender, the people that did know were: Sandaime, Jiraiya, Itachi, the late Shisui, Yugao, Kiba, and Sasuke. Sandaime, because he was there the night of the nine tails attack, the night of her birth. Jiraiya because he was her godfather. Itachi because he was a genius. Shisui, because Narutos' father had requested him to marry his daughter if both parties were willing. Yugao, because she was her guard quite often as a child. Sasuke, because Naruto and he fight often enough that it would be very odd should he not have noticed by now. And Kiba could smell she was a female and called her up on it.

She waited for the test to finish, and as she did so she decided to absorb and feel the nature energy around her. Even natures energy was different. But that was due to black Zetsu and Kaguya being gone in her timeline, whereas here, nature is tainted by their auras and chakra residues. She waited even longer to be called out for her physical and chakra exams, being near the end of the register with the name Uzumaki compared to Shino who was first due to being an Aburame, but at the same time, Ino would be last since she is a Yamanaka. Naruto wouldn't have to be after Sasuke if sandaime didn't hide her legacy. The Namikaze name was and always will be rightfully hers and no matter what the reasons, he had no right to not allow her knowledge of her lineage. "Nor did he have the right to keep the fact you were inside of me a secret, at least then I would know why people hated me and could have done so much to change their opinions of me," she muttered bitterly. Even though Minato had enemies in high places, she had every right to know her parents, to know she was wanted, to know if her parents had been alive she would have been loved by everyone including her parents.

 **"Oh stop wallowing Uzumaki. What's done is done. You can't change that. What you can change, is all the things on that mental list you made earlier. I would suggest writing that down somewhere so you don't forget since I won't be reminding you."**

She left the fox where he was as she and the rest of the class left the room to enter the academy training grounds for the taijutsu test. Throwing kunai, shuriken, and a simple taijutsu spar with the teacher to see if you could land a hit in and how quick. Naruto was not the best at this, as her muscle memory was shot from being a 20-year-old back to a 13-year-old, however considering those facts she did quite well, third in the class in throwing and second in the spar. Since that was over, they returned inside and waited patiently as the two teachers called student by student to do the ninjutsu test. When she sensed Sasuke return to the room, she stopped meditating then her name was called, meaning it was now her turn to take the exam. Entering the exam room next door, she saw Iruka and Mizuki sitting side by side behind a with the leaf headbands on it. Slowly walking to the back she made the hand sign for her shadow clones and five clones came before them, making both Iruka and Mizuki's eyes pop out as they both spluttered out incoherent words before Mizuki spoke, "W-well done Naruto. You have successfully made five clones. You now pass the test and are now a genin of Konohagakure." he passed her the headband and she smiled back at him, both of the smiles were fake as neither could stand each other, Mizuki because she was the host of the nine tails and Naruto because of what he did in her original timeline.

She then turned and smiled truthfully at Iruka, "See Iruka-sensei! I made it to genin! I've even got my own headband! Can we go to Ichirakus for ramen when you're done here?" Naruto knew he would disagree, she had seen them send a member of the ANBU to summon the Hokage, and she hadn't really thought out her first actions and now regretted it. How was she supposed to look him in the eye and act like a cheerful blonde jinchuriki in front of him? She couldn't, that's why! The man died protecting Konoha from his own student back when she was a teenager for Kami sake!

 **"Should have thought of that before. Of course, they were going to tell that old fool you knew about me, it was a secret kept from you your entire life. He will be curious about how you found out, and why you did not tell him about it. I should hope you will have an answer for him."**

 _"How does this sound, during one of my birthdays when I was avoiding the villagers on dads head, I fell asleep and you woke up and told me everything and the reason you woke up was that Shisui activated his Sharingan near me and it angered you because of your hatred of Madara. After that you tolerated me because I didn't see you as a big fuzzy ball of evil- Kurama growled at that- and actually gave you a chance to be yourself. A very adorable fuzzy ball of evil and sarcasm who is just grumpy all day because humans are always picking on him, who also misses his daddy. Isn't that right, Kura-chan?"_

 **"If hurting you wasn't an extension of hurting myself, you know I would claw you right now."** He said, squinting his eyes and baring his fangs to his host. He knew she was only fooling around to make humor, but he had a reputation to uphold! Even if what she was saying, was, in fact, the truth.

 _"You know you love me."_ She said in a sing-song voice. She was bought out of her playful banter with her tenant when she sensed the sandaime enter the room and closed the door behind him.


	2. Chapter 2

**Beta'd by the lovely Ankaa Sage! Thank-you!**

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The Sandaime Hokage Sarutobi Hiruzen, The professor, and holder of the Ape contract. Student of the Shodaime and Nidaime Hokage's. Teacher of the three legendary sannin, Tsunade of Slugs, Jiraiya of Toads and Orochimaru of Snakes, and when all three summoned the creatures, comes to the nickname of the Three Way Deadlock.

His late wife, Biwako, was murdered the night of Naruto's birth when Madara/Obito killed her to take the nine tails out of Kushina Uzumaki.

Looking at the man that had helped to raise her, she noted he looked the same as the last time she'd seen him, minus the black eyes and cracks in his skin. He looked like the same wise man he had once been when he was still alive. His hat and cloak were traditional white robes for a kage with the red fire symbol on his hat signifying he protects the Land of Fire and all the people within it.

He entered with his pipe in hand, as usual, and nodded his head towards her two teachers who were currently bowing to their leader in acknowledgment that they could raise their heads. He then looked at the blonde Uzumaki who was leaning against the wall near the windows, outwardly she was unfazed by the appearance of The Professor, internally, however she was resisting the urge to either run up to him and punch him in the gut as she had done to her father the first time they had met, or to run into his arms and cry her eyes out explaining what would happen and how she had faced it all with her precious people.

As it stood, she did neither of those things as she merely looked calm and collected. She had tied her headband just as the Hokage entered the room.

"Thank-you for contacting me, Iruka, Mizuki. However, I would like to have this matter cleared up in case I misinterpreted something from your missive." everyone in the room knew that was a huge ass lie. The Sandaime Hokage does not misinterpret anything.

 _'Maybe he was too shocked to focus when he heard the words nine tails and Naruto in the same sentence.'_ She mused and in turn, Kurama let out a snort.

Clearing his throat Iruka started to talk, "Thank-you for coming so quick despite all the work you have to do, Lord Hokage." ' _Yeah right. I bet the old man ran at the opportunity to get away from all that paperwork.'_ "However, before we started the exam, Naruto said something that sounded as if she knew." This was all said quietly and the only reason she could actually hear them was due to Kurama having heightened her senses years ago.

Nodding, Hokage turned to look at her and spoke, "Naruto. Could you please tell me the reason why you dazed out during your conversation with Iruka today?"

"My tenant was talking to me."

Raising a brow he signalled for everyone, including his ANBU to leave the room. "Who might you be referring to, Naruto?"

Giving the old man a blank look she continued, "The nine-tailed fox demon that was sealed inside of me the night of my birth. Who else would I be talking about, old man?"

"How did you find out about it?" he took a puff of his pipe as he grabbed a chair to sit on.

"Him." when he gave a perplexed look, she continued, "The nail-tails isn't an 'It', he's a male. He has a name as well. I'd tell you but I doubt he'd be pleased." she gave the old man a foxy grin as she saw his internal battle.

With a tilt of his head, he rephrased his question, "Very well, who told you about him?"

"No one."

"Naruto, I am in no mood for your games."

Naruto snapped as her vision tinted slightly, " _You're_ not in the mood for _my_ games, old man? Which one of us decided not to tell the other, she has a demon sealed inside of her that killed hundreds if not thousands of people on the night of her birth?! Who hid the fact, the man that she looked up to, the Yondaime Hokage, was her father and the man that sealed her fate the night of her birth. Who failed to do as his successor requested?! That his child, be treated as a hero! Not to be treated as a demon!"

She stopped there. She had revealed too much. She had lost control. Years and years of practice to not show too much, to not reveal too much went down the drain. Just as when she met her father for the first time she had harmed the man physically, whereas the man that raised her the one before her now, she harmed him emotionally.

 **Betrayal.**

Naruto knew what it felt like. She first felt it when the orphanage tried to harm her on several occasions but hadn't known what it was at the time. She truly felt it when she was in the forest and Mizuki had told her she held the nine-tails. Then again, when Sasuke left the village. When she found out Jiraiya was killed, she felt betrayed by Lady Tsunade for not stopping the man. No, betrayal was something she knew very much, so she instantly recognized the feeling inside her as she looked at the man who should have had her best interests in mind, when you consider the fact Minato Namikaze gave his life for Konoha, only to have her people betray his only child and final decree.

Not like the Sandaime showed it, but she could sense it. Instead, he chose to continue, "We will discuss that in my office later, right now, I want to know who told you everything you currently know, child."

"The nine-tails." She curled her lips upwards slightly at the look in his eyes.

"How did you- when did you meet him?"

Taping her chin and tugging at some of her hair, she made it look like she was trying to remember the incident when she stopped making a light-bulb-moment gesture. "It was ages back on my birthday, Shisui had taken me away from the villagers so as I was on dads head, Shusui was training not far from me with his Sharingan and that woke up the fox. He kept blabbing about Madara Uchiha and how he was going to kill the man for controlling him like that. Really, he's just a giant fuzzy ball of negative energy." she shook her head sighing as she placed her hands on her hips.

 **"You're not acting quite like your past self,"** grunted Kurama.

 _"I'm trying not to make the changes to obvious and besides, I can't act like a complete idiot I was as a kid. That'd hurt my ego a bit too much."_

 **"You spent far too much time with the Uchiha brat if you're thinking about your ego."**

 _"Hey! You have an ago the same size, if not bigger than his!"_

 **"Yet, I am thousands of years old and a being of chakra. I am allowed and have the right power to back up said ego. He does not. Now before you protest further, the old fool is talking."**

"Could you repeat that? I was talking to the nine-tails."

"Why did you not mention before, that you knew who you were and what you contained?"

"Why should I? It was not my duty to tell you something you already knew. I was also kinda waiting for you to tell me yourself. I was about to make genin and still, no one told me so I thought, I'll take matters into my own hands." She shrugged her shoulders as if it was an ordinary thing to keep secrets from the man who gave her the money and means to live and grow. "It's not like I pledged to tell you everything. That's gonna happen after this, isn't it, Lord third?"

"You are right, my child. However, I did all I could to raise you in a way that I could, however-"

"However your civilian council disagreed? They should never have any say in what the shinobi side does! If we were under martial law, they wouldn't have any more than a 5% say in what happens! I am the daughter of their precious yondaime! Not only do they think his seal weak, but they shame him by trying to harm his only child! His legacy! Why?! Why do they think, Konoha's seals master that the mere name of, even in death, strikes fear into the hearts of Iwagakure, who gave his life to protect their lives, could not make a competent seal?! His wife was the heir to Uzushiogakure, where seals were practically a bloodline! Uzumaki Kushina was disliked for being a foreigner, yet she also was the jinchuriki for the nine-tails! Tell me! What are yours and their excuse?!"

 _"I think I'm a damn good actress. To put this much anger into something that really doesn't bother me anymore. I deserve a trophy and some jutsu scrolls as a prize."_

 **"I shall concede that much, brat."**

"Naruto, I have no words that could make a difference in the way you have been treated, and I am sure nothing I do would ever change that. Despite the way you have been treated, you have turned out to be a lovely, sweet and outspoken child. Truly, if my shinobi cannot see that you physically look like Minato and behave like Kushina, what is it you want, my dear?" the look on Hiruzen's face, was that of defeat. The look of utter defeat made his old age even more pronounced.

"Nothing. I want nothing from these people that can't see an innocent child from an entity of chakra. Maybe me and Sunagakures jinchuriki should swap villages for a few months and see the differences between the two of us.

"Sunagakures jinchuriki? The Shukaku one tails host? What is wrong with the boy?"

Waving her hand, she decided to have some fun, "Oh nothing much. He is the son youngest son of their Kazekage. He's had many assassination attempts on him but he doesn't have the Kage's protection upon him. His dad's the one that ordered those assassination attempts, actually. His mother's love for him entered the sand and it protects him, or something like that. He's a mass murderer and has the one tails whispering in his head all the time." She decided to stop there, anything more would be getting too personal.

"How do you know this?" his eyes, though shrouded by his hat, had squinted even further. He clearly didn't believe that this person in front of him right now was the child he saw run around the village, making the ANBU chase after her after pulling pranks, that yelled all day about being Hokage and loved ramen.

Softening her eyes she replied, "I am the host of the most powerful of the nine tailed beasts. Only few may become jinchuriki and even fewer may have a _bond_ with them. He was raised by the Sage of Sixth Paths who gave a small amount of his chakra to all of them, connecting them if they wish to. Because of that, I can communicate with them, however, if there should be something like a meeting that may only be done in my mindscape and no one else's."

He nodded, externally showing he understood and would comply however internally he was thinking something else. ' _I am unsure as to whether or not this is the same child as I have always known. There is no henge nor genjutsu and I don't sense any seals that would be able to do this. As much as I hate to admit, if Naruto doesn't return to her old self, I may just have to place people to watch her. For her sake and the sake of Konoha.'_

He nodded his head and said he would take his leave, however, requested that Naruto should come to his office once she had eaten something to finish having their meeting. She also nodded in an affirmative manner and made her way out the building. Not bothering to go back into the classroom where she should have gone, instead, she went for a walk. She needed to think things through.

Walking through the village, people began to whisper and talk in hush voices, pointing at her. They seemed to be shocked she had passed her exam and was allowed to wear the headband.

As she made her way to team 7's training ground, she sensed a very familiar chakra signature. Mount Myoboku would have to fall and burn before she forgot that signature.

 **Kakashi.**

Her heartbeat sped at the thought of seeing him again. Although technically, she had only seen him a few hours ago, the mere thought that this Kakashi wasn't her Kakashi yet it was her Kakashi, made her heartache. She wouldn't be able to playfully pull at his hair, tease him, flirt with him... or even touch him, not even a hug. They were not lovers here, not yet. She couldn't get her hopes up though. She planned on changing a lot of things that may end up changing how he sees her.

 _"Well, I'll just have to work for his love more than before! Naruto Uzumaki Namikaze never gives up, dattebayo!"_

 **"I wondered how long it would be before you started saying that infernal phrase you got from your mother, che."**

 _"You've been awfully talkative today, not that I'm complaining or anything, I'm just wondering why?"_

 **"I'm not obligated to tell you why. And what makes you think you will get your dog loving silver-haired male to love you again?"**

 _"I did it once, back then I only knew a few things about sensei, but this time, I know everything thing about him, down to the faded white scars he has on his body and what a nice body it is." she ended wiping a bit of blood from dripping down her nose._

 **"A gentle reminder, you're in the body of a twelve near 13-year-old. He will have as much lust for you as he does for cats. NONE!"**

 _"Ahh, but he doesn't have to lust after me, quite just yet. That can come later-"_

 **"Your body will go into heat as it did in your own time."**

That made her blood run cold. In her original timeline, she would go into heat every three months and Kakashi was the only one who was able to sate her. She had tried with a few people, once with Sasuke, Neji, Genma, Raido, Kiba and even Gaara, yet none had been able to get her body back to normal. And unlike a normal fox, she would not go out of heat after a set time, it had to be done through physical contact.

Going into heat was a painful thing, her body would heat up and no amount of cold showers would cool her down. She would lust after men that she knew and they would her. Her pheromones were that strong that they would attract even those who did not have use of their chakra (civilians).

 _"When?"_ She whispered.

 **"If I am correct, you have two months before you should start your cycles and your heat will initiate six weeks after that, 13 weeks from today, just under four months from now. However, that could change to be sooner as well, since you are more in tune with my chakra now that you were in the original time, so that may have an effect on your cycle, making it come sooner and perhaps last longer as it did after the war."**

She mentally groaned. It seemed that somewhere, someone really hated her. Here she was, in her old body, a season away from going into heat and she had no lover, she would have to devise a plan to seduce Kakashi in order for him to touch her and sate her more carnal desires.

 **"It would seem, you have no choice and neither does your wolf. Will you tell him the truth, or will you keep it to yourself?"**

 _"I don't like keeping secrets nor do I like lying to him. I'll give him a test of sorts after our test and see what comes of it. Most likely, either way, I would tell him but perhaps not everything?"_

 **"What would you keep to yourself?"**

 _"I won't tell him about the Uchiha coup, that is personal to Itachi, if I have his permission then I will tell Kakashi. I think I'll tell him about Obito being alive, how to approach that conversation will need full-on planning and strategies, hmm I wonder. Do you think I'd be able to transfer memories using the kotoamatsukami?_

 **"Theoretically, you should be able to. The fundamentals of it allow the caster to show anything they wish so showing memories should be no problem. However, I would incorporate one of the Yamanaka clan techniques to make the memory more reliable and un-bias. Why? Who would you show your memories to?"**

 _"Ideally, Obito to show him Kakashi isn't the source of all unhappiness and death. Sasuke, I'd show him after the chunin exams so he would be able to understand his brother better and Kakashi after he has started to develop feelings for me if he does. I don't want him to date me because he would feel obligated to yeah, but obviously, I may have to change the plan since not everything goes my way."_

She stopped talking to the fox when she felt Kakashi only a few meters away from her. Her heart rate once again sped up and she internally debated on what she should do. After ten seconds of having her eyes, she opened them and let out a breath slowly turning around.


	3. Chapter 3

This had been beta'd by the lovely Ankaa Sage!

She chickened out and she poofed herself away (teleporting in a poof of smoke like Kakashi always does) to the shopping district. One, she needed new clothes. Two, she couldn't face Kakashi just yet.

 **"You have only been here for 18 hours and you can't face him? I will never understand humans."**

 _"It's the fact that he's not my Kakashi and that's it. Drop it."_

With that, she wandered through the district, looking through the shop windows till she saw a shop she knew very well as an adult. She would always get her clothes and weapons from the same store. The same store her dad had bought his ever so flashy yondaime cloak made from. It was a simple store made to tailor clothing and weapons and allow the customer to create their own designs and will make the clothes as they wish. Another perk of this shop was, when she was younger, they used to allow her to buy everything at their actual price and not double the price.

Entering, she gave a smile and wave to the lady behind the counter before having a look around. She saw lots of female, male and unisex clothes as well as a variety of weapon; kunai, tonto, senbon, katanas, and shuriken were on the shelves however as they tailor clothes, they make weapons as well.

She skipped past the weapons for now and saw a nice jacket that was black and orange, then another shirt that had fishnet sleeves up to the elbows that were orange and blue material that covered the chest. The third one she saw was a silver-ish-grey dress that wrapped around the neck to the midriff where it then clipped in the center. (SORRY I'M CRAPPY AT DESCRIBING CLOTHES READ END COMMENTS FMI) It was similar to the one she wore in the future, except that one was orange and silver with black and blue flowers, only worn when she was with Kakashi.

She decided to purchase all three, with slight changes made here and there, such as the second shirt, have it made orange with large black strips going from the lower right to the upper left, and to have orange dots placed on the silver wrap. She would be able to collect the finished product later that evening, after her second meeting with the sandaime and presumably after she eats something.

She continued her way through the village, looking around to see what had been changed after the attack. The placing and looks of the buildings were all changed, of course, however, the names and general locations of everything had been placed where they originally were. No one had been willing to give up on the old Konoha.

She stopped when she realized that she was in front of the Memorial stone and looked at the names carved, looking at them all.

 **Uchiha Obito.**

 **Nohara Rin.**

 **Namikaze Minato.**

There was no Jiraiya, Hayate Gekko or even Neji. There was still hope that they, and thousands of others, would still get a chance to live.

Sighing, she turned around and made her way to the Hokage office. When she saw people glaring at her she decided to jump on the roofs and get there. It would be quicker anyway.

.

.

.

Sarutobi Hiruzen sat behind his desk as his oldest friends sat before him, Homura, Koharu and Danzo, the three of them also had reputable seats on the councils despite their age.

Homura and Koharu would lash out whenever they felt Hiruzen would do something they did not agree upon, such as allowing the host of the nine-tails to live on her own. It was not out of spite, they worried what would happen if someone found out her true gender and harm her, which could in turn anger the fox.

Danzo, however, would be more secretive about the way he disagreed. He would propose a different suggestion and when the Hokage would not yield he would get his ROOT operatives to see to it his wishes were complied with.

"All we are asking is what the missive about the jinchuriki was about, Hiruzen, and what you found out," said Homura as Koharu took the pipe out of the aged kage's hand.

Sighing he thought it best to tell them what had transpired earlier that day, and to say they were shocked was an understatement, at least his old teammates were shocked. It took a lot to get Danzo shocked.

At some point between the three in front of him started bickering he tuned them out, vaguely registering what was being said. After five minutes he could feel Naruto's chakra signature, which had slightly changed when he had seen her earlier and asked the three of them to leave so he could find out what else he needed to know and if it was important, he would keep his old friends informed.

As they left, he sighed. He felt it was time to retire yet he could not, Minato was long dead, Jiraiya hated being in Konoha for too long after having been denied his right to look after his godchild, Tsunade had yet to return since the third war ended, Orochimaru was an S rank criminal that betrayed them, Itachi was named a wrongly accused S rank criminal. The last option was Danzo, however, he was very much reluctant to allow the old war hawk, as he feared what he would do to the village, the alliances and most of all, to Naruto.

.

.

.

When she got to the tower she resisted the urge to giggle. There red paint on the fire symbol had faded and the whole building had cracks in the concrete and paint, making it look as old as it truly was.

She made her way through, many people such as Genma, pausing to greet her and make small talk with her, telling her the Hokage was waiting for her in his office.

She paused at the door and decided to just walk right through, he knew she was coming anyway, and it wasn't like she could sense anyone inside either.

She old man was sitting on his chair behind the desk with his fingers interlinked under his chin as he nodded towards the guest chair, gesturing for her to sit down. "So Naruto," he gave a long pause, grabbing his pipe and taking a long puff of smoke from it before continuing, "I realized that earlier I did not congratulate you on passing the exam. In case you don't know, next week you will be expected to return to class and be placed on your team." he looked at her, waiting for her outburst and was surprised to see she didn't do so. "You don't seem so surprised to hear about this."

She merely shrugged before elaborating, "Everyone who isn't taken under an apprenticeship is placed in a three man cell consisting of one female to two males. Besides if Itachi and Shisui managed to deal with having a team and be proteges, I'm sure I can deal."

"Do you know why I always asked Shisui to look after you as a child, when he could?"

"Because I was supposed to marry him if we both consented?" she asked, confused as to why he was bringing up her late fiance.

"That was part of the reason, yes. However, it was mostly to show the elders of the Uchiha clan that we did not blame them for the nine tails attack all those years ago." he took another puff of his pipe and looked her in the eye, scrutinizing her expression that gave nothing away, so instead he got out of his chair and turned to gaze out his window.

Snorting she spoke, "Not like it changed very much on their thought process. They still planned a coup against us."

Nodding, "Yes, indeed they did-" he snapped his head which had caught the sight of Konoha's copy ninja, his eyes had bulged out considerably, "How do you know about that?!"

She couldn't help it and let out a fit of laughs so hard she ended up rolling on the ground. The man who mastered all chakra natures, leader of the most powerful ninja village and student of the God of Shinobi himself had lost his cool and let down his guard with the most dangerous person in the five elemental nations. The irony.

Oh, how Lord Hashirama would be laughing in his grave and Lord Tobirama would be glaring at his student.

After she calmed down she replied, "Well, Shisui and Itachi were discussing it back when they thought I was sleeping and when I questioned Shisui that night he confirmed what I had heard was in fact true. He promised to tell me everything the next night but... He never got the chance." she whispered the last part.

It was partially a lie. She had overheard the two Uchihas having the conversation however they had not told her the Uchiha were planning against the village. Shisui had also promised to tell her more about it the next night, however, he had not anticipated Danzos betrayal.

 **Danzo Shimura.**

The man had had Konoha's best interests in mind yet had also had his head stuck in the time of war. Believing the only way we could live was in a constant war. He had allowed the death of hundred fall onto the hands of a teenager and then had him branded a missing-nin, who had taken the Sharingan eyes of many and yet proclaimed it all to be in Konoha's benefit.

"Shisui Uchiha told you classified information regarding Konoha's safety when you merely a seven year old?" the sandaimes voice clearly showed that he did not believe a word she was saying.

She sighed deeply. ' _If I trusted you like I should, old man, I would tell you the truth. However, you're very much liable to tell Koharu and Homura and they would tell Danzo. I can't let that happen. Not after what happened the last time you confided in your counsel.'_

"Why would I lie? How else would I know this information, if not by Shisui himself? We were to be wed, he never wanted secrets between us and I knew him keeping the fact I'm a jinchuriki a secret. That pained him to do so. You could see the pain in his eyes whenever I cried about how the village treated me but I never understood it. The look in his eyes when I questioned him about the nine-tails. I can't even describe the pain and anguish and the look of fear. Fear that I would remove myself from his life. He bent and kneeled to me on the floor, begging me for his forgiveness where he didn't need to. Shisui will forever hold a place in my heart as a member of my family and that will never change. Not even in death."

 **"The amount of crap you are spewing right now, is quite hilarious, however, I can truly visualize what you said happening. You truly did love the boy, didn't you?"**

"Did you love him?" asked the sandaime the same time as Kurama, and sat back down in his chair, pipe long forgotten.

Gulping hard, she thought about it before answering, "I did. I had known from the beginning that the two of us were very likely to marry if we wished it. Shusui never told me but I overheard Mikoto tell him about it. Questioning whether he was with me because he felt obligated or because he wanted to. He said he couldn't stand the way the people were treating me, that I deserved at least one good thing in my life since my own godmother and godfather could do nothing to raise me."

"You know who your godparents are?" his hands were locked together under his chin, something she remembered him doing often, however this time, he held them together tightly. Clearly, the thought of her knowing who her godparents were distressed him. Mikoto Uchiha was long since dead and Jiraiya was going around the elemental nations, gathering information after being refused custody of her.

She shook her head, "No, all I know is my godmother is dead and my godfather is a very powerful man, however not even he could over-rule the counsel."

Nodding his head, Hiruzen weighed his options; he could have a person watch the girl day in and day out or he could trust the little girl as he has her entire life. She had never done anything to harm the citizens of Konoha even though she could have many times over and she would have every right, just as Naruto said Sunagakures jinchuriki does.

He chose to trust her. Minato wished for her to be treated as a hero after all.

"Very well, Naruto. Before I let you go, how do you feel about your father sealing a demon inside of you?"

"There's nothing I can do about it now. But if I ever saw him, I'd punch him in the gut for making me go through this all without a parent."

The sandaime was about to release her, but before he could release her, she spoke up, "By the way, old man. The nine-tails said something about Mizuki having a cursed seal on him and smelling like a snake, and to that, I have to agree."

His only reaction was to freeze before giving her a small smile, saying it would be best if she ate and went home to rest for tomorrow and she did just as he advised, after having gotten her clothes from the store.

.

.

.

The Sandaime sighed as Naruto left. He would have no choice but to tell the other three what he had learned today. As he debated how he should tell them either in person or letter someone came in through the window.

"Why is it, everyone below fifty-five insists on coming through the window?" asked the sandaime to the silver-haired man in front of him.

In return, he simply gave his Hokage a fake smile and bowed, "You wished to see me, Lord Hokage?"

The Hokage placed his hands under his chin and spoke, "You are being placed on a team with Sasuke Uchiha-rookie of the year, Sakura Haruno- top kunoichi, and Naruto Uzumaki." he faded off.

Raising his head Kakashi spoke, "What is it you wish to tell me, Lord Hokage? I already know who Naruto is."

The Sandaime felt the need to tell the man Naruto was a girl but decided to let Naruto tell the man if she trusted him enough to do so, "I had his exam paper sent to me. It turns out he got 100%." raising a brow the copy ninja waited for him to continue, "Naruto has secrets. Some I know, some I don't. I want you to find out what these secrets are. I will not ask you to tell me what they are, however, since that will be a breach of trust. No, I only want you to inform me if his secrets affect Konoha's safety. Am I clear?"

He placed his fisted hand over his heart and once again bowed to his leader, agreeing and was about to leave before he spoke up again, "I want you to capture Mizuki and sent him to T&I immediately."

He left via the window instantly and did as the Hokage ordered.

.

.

.

The week had gone by similarly to how it had last time so when the day of team placements came, she woke up at dawn, she had always been an early bird, however, this time around she would have even more training to do in order to get to where she had been before being sent to the past.

Taking a shower, eating breakfast and getting dressed in her new jacket and black ninja trousers with her kunai pouch attached to her right thigh and headed out to training ground 7 in order to train. She made twenty-five shadow clones, each to break into groups of five to do; fuinjutsu, ninjutsu, taijutsu, genjutsu and senjutsu, the last one also trying to summon her toads and talk to them if she manages.

After two solid hours of training, she found she had the same amount of stamina as she did when she was 14 and not 12, her strength was that of a preteen, her genjutsu was just the same as was her ninjutsu and senjutsu. She was also able to summon the toads and did not have to explain anything as they had felt her presence and questioned the Ogama sannin who explained most of the information and she filled in the blanks here and there.

They agreed to keep her a secret from Jiraiya till she was ready to see the man who had trained her and treated her like a daughter, who had paved the path that allowed her to become Hokage.

She went back home to take another shower and redressed in the new jacket she had bought before she ate again and made her way to the academy for team placements.

 **"Will you allow the incident with the Uchiha to happen again?"**

 _"Will you kiss Gaara?"_

 **"No!"**

 _"Then don't ask silly questions, or I'll take you out of the seal and make you babysit my future children, 'tebayo!"_

She went inside the building and stopped slowly opened the classroom door and as she did, all eyes went on her. Her change of clothes and the clear sight of her headband.

"Hey, Naruto what are you doing here? This room is only for those that actually passed their tests and became genin?" Asked Shikamaru.

Pointing to her forehead that held Konoha's symbol she replied, "See this? I passed my exam and I'm a genin with the rest of you, dattebayo!" she fist-bumped the air with both hands above her head, grinning widely.

She made her way where Sasuke was and sat beside him and all he did was give her a once over, a raised brow and a small nod before going back to his brooding.

It wasn't long before they could hear a stampede and in came Sakura and Ino arguing who came into the room first.

"With that pink haired girl, life just gets worse and worse. Do you remember all the screaming and hitting she used to do? I say, trap her in the kotoamatsukami and make her learn her place."

Naruto would never say so, but she silently thought that it was a good idea, it may just get Sakura out of her fan-girl stage earlier than before and save a lot of problems.


	4. Chapter 4

This had been beta'd by the lovely Ankaa Sage!

Ino and Sakura started yelling about which one of the two had entered the room first and about Sasuke. Again. However, they both stopped when they saw Naruto sitting next to Sasuke. Ino had the decency to not say anything about it but Sakura just couldn't let her precious Sasuke sit next to the class clown.

"Naruto! Why are you sitting next to Sasuke?! I'm sitting there!" the pinkette yelled despite only being a couple feet away from the blonde.

Naruto it turns, looked at her seat then around her seat before saying, "I don't see you sitting here. I don't see your name anywhere. So tell me, how can you say you're sitting here when I got here first and sat here first?" she quirked a brow and smirked slightly, shocking the people that were actually paying attention to them, namely the rookie nine.

"Because! Sasuke wouldn't want you to sit next to him when I can! Who wants to sit next to the class dead last?" she raised her fisted hand to strike the blonde who gripped her wrist and turned her onto her stomach, arm at her back.

"Raise your hand to me again, I'll do far worse than simply subdue you. You couldn't even protect yourself from the _dead last_ , never mind a fully trained ninja. At this rate, you'll end up dying a pathetic death." her voice became slightly deeper as Kurama tried to have his _lessons_ with her, for thinking her above a jinchuriki.

"Behave you."

Sakura whimpered under Naruto who picked her up and thrust her forwards slightly, making her stumble backwards. "You are a kunoichi, act like it and not a pathetic fan-girl. You'll only get you and your team killed like that. I'm sure Sasuke wants a girl who can look after herself and doesn't require help when it comes to her own safety. Uchiha matriarchs were all kunoichi or trained in kunoichi arts in order to defend their family should something happen when the men are away. Like the nine-tails attack, the men went to protect our home whilst the women protected the children and elderly. Think about that before spewing out nonsense that you're more qualified out of the rest of the kunoichi here. You're not." with that, she sat back down, just as Iruka and a Mizuki clone walked through the doors.

Iruka smiled and gave the same speech he gave the last time as he took out the scroll with all the details, Naruto listened to only the names of the rookie nine.

"Team 7; Sakura Haruno, Naruto Uzumaki-" he looked up to see what expression Naruto would have but it was just blank, "-and Sasuke Uchiha." Sakura jumped for joy at this and was clearly happy. Sasuke and Naruto showed no outward reaction. Mizuki shrugged and continued, "Team 8; Hinata Hyuuga, Kiba Inuzuka and Shino Aburame. Team 10; Ino Yamanaka, Chouji Akimichi and Shikamaru Nara."

The words and phrases "sweet" "troublesome" "aww" "Yes" "Ruff" and some stuttering could be heard from the individuals who wished to vocalize something.

Iruka took it from there, "Your senseis will be here soon so please wait."

Not long after, the senseis for the other teams that Naruto couldn't remember the names of came and after a half hour Kurenai came for team 8 and Asuma came for team 10, at the same time.

Naruto knew Kakashi wouldn't be here for another two and a half hours and decided to sleep for a bit, dreaming of what her future once was and was suddenly awoken when she felt Kakashi outside the building, making his way inside slowly.

Yawning she stretched and got the eraser and put a seal on it that through chakra that upon impact would release orange powder all over Kakashis hair. She had done something similar in her own time when the man had come to their fourth date late again. The next time he was late she dyed his headband and mask orange. After that, he was never late for her ever again for more than 10 minutes.

Naruto knew why he was late, however putting your life on hold for the dead was hardly the life his late teammates would have wanted him to live. It was actually the reason they had broken things off the first time, he was always late and paid little if any attention to her. After she had avoided him for two weeks consecutively he trapped her in a force field made from _her own fuinjutsu seal_ and kissed the daylights out of her. He then proceeded to kiss all parts of her face, apologizing and asking for her to come back to him. She had made him promise to not act as if the stone would bring back his team. He still went to the stone, she was not heartless to ask that of him, it was a safe haven and she understood, and Kakashi came on time a lot more frequently.

The second time they broke things off was because Kakashi didn't want her going to Mount Myoboku for an unknown time and when she came back, he was dead. When he had been revived they made their way out of the village for a few hours and came back after having made up and more.

She placed the eraser in between the door and its frame for it to fall in his hair and sat back down. He came back in and let it land on his head, clearly not expecting the powdered dye to come off it.

Giggling she asked, "Well sensei? How do you like my fuinjutsu skills? Bet you weren't expecting that, now were ya'?"

Sasuke and Sakura had remained silent during the exchange, Sasuke taking his infamous brooding pose whilst Sakura looking confused.

Eyeing all three of his genin, Kakashi's gaze lingering on the blonde he spoke, "Meet me on the rooftop in five minutes. Don't be late." with that, he poofed there.

"You were the one that was late!" yelled Sakura as Naruto stared at Sasuke.

"Race you to the roof, teme." the two smirked, Sasuke going through the window whilst she shunshined there, shocking Kakashi who was standing and had somehow got the powder out of hair, leaning against the center railing.

"Well looks like we're the only ones here, _sensei_." for the first time since Naruto came to the past she gave a small, genuine smile to the man and he seemed surprised yet again. It wasn't obvious to just anyone, but she was Kakashi's lover, she knew everything about the man. He looked younger, no wrinkles around his eye that he had in the future from so much smiling and age.

"So it would seem, blondie."

She snorted and walked up to him, leaning up to whisper in his ear, "I wouldn't dis the hair your sensei gave Me." she gave a wink for good measure and sat in the middle of the stairs. Kakashi looked disinterested however he wanted to know how Naruto knew who her father was and how she knew he was his sensei.

"Care to explain why you were avoiding me yesterday?" he asked as he took his _i-don't-care_ pose.

"I thought I was in your way, so I decided to get on with my day without interrupting the Copy Ninja," she replied with such sweetness it reminded him of Kushina, how she was sweet talk Minato whilst her hair parted into nine parts.

He nodded in reply and gave an eye smile, thinking it was the wisest course of action not to upset the daughter of Kushina Uzumaki. He shivered at the mere thought of what the woman would do to him.

His smile, instead of having the effect he had planned, merely seemed to upset her, "If you're not going to smile for real, don't smile at all."

He faltered, "You do the same, Naruto." with that they sat in silence both contemplating what the other had said. No one had ever been able to see the pain behind either one of their smiles, minus the Nara clan heads, i.e. Shikaku and Shikamaru, so having someone close to them that could read them that well was unnerving if not unsettling.

Though, Naruto was simply surprised that this Kakashi paid her enough attention to see the fake smiles she used to give as a child, the same way future Kakashi could, it warmed her heart in a way she knew it shouldn't, this man may never be able to love her the way her Kakashi had.

They were both bought out of their thoughts by the distinct sound of someone landing on the roof. Sasuke.

"Che, who taught you that?" he sat down on Naruto's' right, referring to her use of the shunshin, taking his brooding pose yet again. Naruto's reply came in the form of a cheeky grin and Sasuke immediately remembered Shisui had been the girl's fiance and must have thought her the fundamentals of killing himself. A minute or so after Sakura came, having gone up the stairs.

Had all three of them had their own reasons to keep composure, they would have face palmed. A kunoichi taking stairs to meet her team. There was a lot wrong with that statement when you add the fact she was kunoichi of the year.

She glared at Naruto, most likely for sitting next to Sasuke and leaving her with no choice but to sit next to Naruto.

"Well then. Now that we're all here, let's start introductions. You know, likes, dislikes, dreams."

Sakura raised her hand, "Um sensei, how about you go first as an example."

"My name is Kakashi Hatake. I have many dislikes and few dislikes and my dreams... hmm... Well, blondie you go first now."

 _All we found out was his name_. Thought Sasuke and Sakura.

 _Typical Kakashi_.

"My name is Naruto Uzumaki. I like ramen, foxes, wolves, and dogs. I dislike people judging you for something you can't control and the time it takes for ramen to cook. My dream is to be the best Hokage and keep my precious people safe." She looked pointedly at Kakashi when she said that, wanting to scrutinize his expression.

She knew the man had done his homework and that was the reason he was late today. Getting facts about his students after having visited the memorial stone.

Outwardly he showed no reaction but he could practically hear the gears turning in that mind of his. Trying to piece together a complex puzzle that came in the form of Naruto Uzumaki. He didn't have long to do so as he gets to the next person. Sasuke and Sakuras' introductions were the same as before and Naruto hid a flinch when she heard he planned on killing Itachi.

In the future, whenever anyone said anything bad about Itachi she would leek a large amount of killing intent at them and warn them never to speak ill of Konohas' most loyal shinobi. She just had to repeat that he didn't know the truth yet nor did the rest of Konoha.

"Meet me tomorrow 6 A.M. at training ground 7. Oh and I wouldn't eat breakfast if I was you, you'll puke your guts out. B-"

"Wait, sensei!" All eyes turned to Naruto and her sudden outburst. "Um, could I speak to you later today? It's important."

Kakashi's first reaction would have been to say no, however he saw the serious look in his student's eyes and decided against it. Giving an eye smile he replies, "Sure. Where?"

"The yondaimes head." with that she poofed over to her dads head and Kakashi did so a few moments after. "So Naruto, what did you want to see me about?"

"I know that you know I know about my dad being the yondaime hokage. We both also know about the nine tails. I want you to answer one question for me; what happened to Obito and Rin?"

Kakashi's eye bulged out slightly and if you looked carefully you could see the pain hidden beneath the shock. Leave it to Kakashi to hide his pain. Naruto felt a lump to grow in her throat as her heart also ached. It ached for the pain she had caused the man she loves.

Clearing his throat he asked, "How do you know about them?"

"Just answer the question sensei, and I'll answer all your questions after tomorrows test. I look forward to the bell test, by the way."

"Obito died during my first mission as jonin at Kannabi Bridge and Rin died after my Chidori pierced her through the heart." he looked anywhere but at the child of his own late sensei.

"One more thing, did the sandaime ask you to get information out of me?"

He blanched and blinked a few times before scratching the back of his neck, "Well not gather but to be an ear for your secrets. I won't be telling him anything you confide to me unless it regards Konoha's safety such as your seal weakening. Not that that is a possibility since the yondaime himself made that seal."

She nodded slowly with a soft smile on her face that had Kakashi giving her a real smile as well, blush and all.

 **"He passed then I presume?"**

 _"Yup."_

"Is there anything else I can help with? You know I will be asking you a lot of questions after the test, don't you?"

"Oh, I'm sure you will sensei. And thank-you for telling me the truth and not a lie. Oh before I forget, I should mention that I'm a girl and not a boy. If you don't believe me, I'll have to surprise you and strip." with that she shunshined back to her apartment and started practicing her fuinjutsu skills.

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.

.

Kakashi wasn't sure what he should do. He was weighing his options, tell the sandaime that Naruto knew everything or keep it to himself.

But then as he looked at his sensei's name on the memorial stone, he remembered the Hokage faltering in saying something. Perhaps he wished to test the man, see if he could find out this information and what he would do with it.

Naruto knew she was a jinchuriki. She knew who put the demon inside her. She knew the man was her father.

 _What else does Naruto know? This must be why the sandaime asked me to gather information._

One thing that truly puzzled him, was that he hadn't been told the child of his sensei was a girl and not a boy as most people believed. The number of things that could have gone wrong should he pass them or even whilst he tested them... The one thousand years of death came to mind at that moment and he felt chills from the mere thought that he might have ended up using it on a girl.

 _That kind of thing could be taken as an assault._

And you did not want to assault the daughter of Konoha's yellow flash and red hot habanero. Both were considered as demons, Minato because of his reputation during the third way against Iwa and Kushina because of her vast chakra reserves and for the demon she held.

He dared not think what the nine-tails would do to him if he did that to the demons current vessel.

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Naruto woke up late the next day, 7 A.M. Right now, Sasuke and Sakura would be in the training fields waiting for Kakashi. Well, most likely only Sakura. Last night before going to bed, Naruto had sent a message via toads to both her teammates letting them know to eat and that it won't matter if they're on time since Kakashi will be three hours late again. Sasuke would listen to her since she would never do something to jeopardize their passing whilst Sakura would most likely ignore her message. Listening to what Kakashi had suggested and not what was the wiser option. Another thing she included was that if the test was the bell test, they would have to work together in order to pass.

Hopefully, Sasuke listened, at least then Sakura would listen to reason if he asked.

Getting out of bed she made breakfast, did some warm-ups, did some push-ups and other exercises to increase her strength and endurance before heading off to training ground 7 at 8:45 A.M.

She met with Sasuke on the way, since they both lived in the same area, they decided to walk together, without actually verbally saying anything.

"How did you about Kakashi? And the test?" He asked as he glared at the civilians glaring at Naruto. He was the last loyal Uchiha, or so he thought, and it was his duty to keep people away from the girl who would have been his cousin-in-law, who he would have seen almost all day with her being on his team and Shisui always being around his brother.

"Kakashi was the student of the yondaime Hokage who was the student of Jiraiya of the sannin who was the student of the sandaime who was the student of the shodaime and nidaime. The sandaime gave the legendary sannin the bell test who gave the yondaimes team the same test, and he gave his genin team, Kakashi senseis team, the bell test as well. He' most likely to give us the bell test as well. There will be two bells and three of us. It's to pit us against each other so teamwork is key. Without us working together there will be no way to get the bells from him or to pass this test." She looked at Sasuke with the corner of her eyes and saw he was nodding slightly, understanding.

 _Kakashi, you will be in one heck of a surprise with me on this team._


	5. Chapter 5

This had been beta'd by the lovely Ankaa Sage!

Sasuke and Naruto got training ground 7 to see Sakura already there, leaning against the third stump that was in the ground, looking highly bored till she saw Naruto and Sasuke.

"Sasuke! You're here!"

She had a large smile on her face but when she looked at Naruto she scowled and shouted in anger, "Naruto! Why are you so late?!"

In return Naruto just raised a brow and sat a top of the middle log, one leg raised with her wrist leaning against it. "I love how you noticed I was late and felt the need to complain about it, yet Sasuke and I both got here the same time. I will also take the moment to say, you realize I sent a message to you last night, saying our sensei would come late and yet here, you are, hungry and bored."

Sakura opened her mouth, most likely to berate the blonde, however, Kakashi chose that moment to poof in front of them from the trees where he had been a few minutes before they got there.

"Well. It would seem you're all here. My test is pretty simple." he pulled two bells from out of nowhere and showed it to them. "You need to get these bells before noon. See, simple."

"Um but sensei? There are only two bells and three of us?" asked Sakura. Naruto felt like facepalming and did so. She had explained the test to Sakura the night before in her letter and yet she still decided to ask stupid questions.

Giving an eye smile Kakashi resisted the urge to copy the blonde and said, "Well only two of you can pass this test, meaning one of you will be sent back to the academy, or if I'm feeling generous, I'll give you another shot afternoon, however the weakest from the first round will have to be tied to the post without lunch."

As if on cue Sakuras stomach growled loudly whereas Sasuke and Naruto's were fine.

 _So Naruto and Sasuke can think for themselves. Naruto, I hope you're prepared for my bombardment of questions I have for you later._ Thought Kakashi.

 _"I think he's having a little too much fun with this."_

 **"I am still curious as to why you told him last night you were a girl and not tell him today."**

 _"Because I may be powerful but Kakashi is the one that helped me to become so. He still has the one-thousand years of death up his sleeve and I have no intention of having that up my ass. No thank-you."_

By the time she was done talking to Kurama, Kakashi had already taken out the timer and just yelled for them to go.

Sasuke joined where Naruto was so they could plan together, "So dobe, how are we going to get Sakura on board?"

"I didn't think you'd be all that willing to join forces, to be honest. I'm shocked." she wasn't really but she had to keep up pre-tenses.

"I can't be sent back to the academy, I have too many things to be getting on with that won't work if I'm stuck in a classroom all day," he replied in a hushed voice. He thought he heard something and quickly looked around and saw a squirrel.

Nodding she said, "Well first I suggest we move because he's spotted us." with that she grabbed Sasuke by the upper arm and shunshined quite a distance from Kakashi's somewhat all-seeing eyes. "Okay, so first I take you to where she is, then you go to her and tell her we need to work together, then call me out when she agrees and we'll come up with a plan when we get there. Or I might just think of a plan as you convince her."

He nodded but internally he wondered when Naruto became so smart. He knew she wasn't the complete idiot people thought she was, but he didn't know just how clever she truly was. When he thought about it, he didn't know very much about Naruto besides what perhaps everyone in Konoha did, despite the fact that she would have been a matriarch of his clan. _I'll have to fix that later._

Naruto grabbed him by his upper arm again and shunshined them to Sakuras general location, just a few trees behind her. Sasuke went to do his thing and convince her to join them as Naruto thought of what to do. She could distract Kakashi with a clone whilst Sasuke attacked him with a fireball and Sakura with some kunai with explosive tags attached to it, as the real Naruto come from underground and grabs the bells and tosses it the other two, explaining how they had worked together.

Fool proof right?

Kakashi was bored.

Even with his precious Icha Icha book in his hands, he was still bored.

Why?

These three children knew how to hide, Sasuke and Sakura not hiding their chakra properly, however, he could barely sense Naruto. Truthfully, he couldn't feel Naruto at all.

He stood in the middle of training ground 7, looking everywhere, discreetly smelling and listening to anything and everything around him.

He wasn't bored for long though, as all three of them started to attack him up front. They all came together, he noted, so they must have planned it.

At this point, he knew that even if they didn't get the bells from him, he would still pass them. They looked at each other every so often that clearly showed that they planned something and wanted to make sure everything was going right.

 _If they're all in front of me, who do they intend to take the bells?_ It was then that he felt the ground below him move slightly.

His eye went wide slightly before he chuckled, and jumped.

 _This may just be more interesting than I thought._

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.

.

Her plan was fool proof. Or so she had thought.

Kakashi, sannin knows how, had sensed or felt her coming and jumped into the air avoiding her attack, as they re-enacted her plan, so she had to try something else. She signaled for the two of them to carry on how they saw fit as she got out her tonto and fused it with her wind chakra and some lightning, going to close combat fighting instead.

If Kakashi was surprised, Naruto didn't get the chance to see as she was too busy concentrating on the fight at hand. Had this been a fight in her original body, it wouldn't require this much concentration, however, her strength was less than half the strength she had in the future unless she accessed at sage mode which would give her body a lot of endurance.

To deflect her attack, he raised a kunai after and put away his _book_ that always annoyed her to no end. Now, Naruto had nothing against the book, most of the powerful shinobi and few kunoichi, herself included, read those books, but like the memorial stone, it took a lot of Kakashi's attention so once she lost her temper she had cut it with her wind.

The two of them were at his apartment, Naruto making eggplant soup and as she was telling him about her day, he was reading his book. She was used to Kakashi not showing interest in her during the day with people around but seeing him do the same thing in the private confines of his home, where they could be themselves made her lose it. She had ripped the book into pieces and left the apartment, going to get rid of some pent up frustrations and came home to see Kakashi already waiting for her there and asked her to forgive him, he had bought the food she had made them and decorated her dining table with a silk cloth and candles. And as always, whenever he did apologize, she forgave him and had dinner with him. He hadn't wished to upset her further and had not bought the book instead so she had done it for him and told him not to read it when they were alone since they didn't get very much alone time back then.

Kakashi had the advantage, in the fight, he had his adult body which had all his strength with it. Even if he wasn't as strong as future Kakashi still overpowered her so discretely she absorbed some nature energy into a clone, not enough to enter sage mode, just enough to raise her strength.

He had at some point sent her tonto flying leaving the two to fight in hand-to-hand combat and despite being at an obvious disadvantage she was doing okay. Naruto was no idiot, she knew he was holding back but not even he could focus on holding back and his surroundings, so once again when Kakashi hit her, she replaced herself with her clone who continued the fight, she placed more chakra into it to make sure it didn't disperse just by being hit.

Real Naruto joined up with Sasuke and Sakura then proceeded to replace them with henged versions of her clones as themselves as she spoke with them. "Okay, new plan. Before I continue, we're a team so I want to know if you have any ideas?" they both looked at Sakura since she was best with book smarts but she shook her head, no. "Okay, I'll make a bunch of clones, me and Sasuke will attack him upfront and behind whilst Sakura and a clone go to get the bells."

"Um, Naruto. If the purpose of the test to teamwork, well we're doing that. Why do we need to actually _get_ the bells?" she asked quietly, not wanting Kakashi to hear her as she twiddled her fingers through her hair.

Sasuke, who hadn't said anything silently agreed with her. "Simple. I seriously just want to get those wretched bells off him and rip that _I-know-more-than-you-do_ looks right off his face. That's why." In the future, she had managed to get the bells with Sakura, and although she did know a way to get the bells off him on her own, this was a test of teamwork and not to see if they could get the bells.

There were 3 months during her time with Jiraiya that she had been kidnapped by Akatsuki, and Itachi had asked her why no one simply used kawarimi to get the bells. It was so simple yet no one but the Uchiha prodigy had thought about it. When he had suggested it, she had turned around on her bed and screamed into the pillow for not having thought about it before.

Both Sasuke and Sakura looked skeptical, wondering if it was a good enough reason to go through all the trouble, but decided to do it since he had made them wait for so long yesterday and today, well not for Naruto and Sasuke, but still.

This time when they reenacted Naruto's plan, they succeeded to the joy of Kakashi, if his smile was anything to go by. He gave the same _who is scum speech_ before giving a pointed look at Naruto before saying he was going to see Konoha's view by poofing out. Again. Naruto internally sighed and followed him over to her dads head via shunshin leaving Sasuke with the banshee.

Kakashi had already taken the comfiest spot of the rock, her spot, and she sighed before moving to stand across from him.

"Konoha is truly beautiful, wouldn't you agree Naruto?" he asked, not taking his eyes off the village he and many others protect.

"You're right, but I think we're kinda biased, with it being our home and everything, 'tebayo." she took a seat a meter or so away from him in her meditating pose as she waited for Kakashi to begin.

"Tell me what you think I should know about you before I start asking questions."

"Well, last night I told you I was a girl. Mostly so you didn't end up using the one-thousand years of death on me but still. You already know I'm the host of the nine tailed fox, I am your late sensei, Minato Namikaze and his late wife, Kushina Uzumaki's daughter. I was sort of engaged to Shisui Uchiha from before my birth. My parents decided that, so if something should happen at my birth and no one wished to marry me, Shisui would do so, hence why the old man always sent me to him." she paused when in the corner of her eye, she could see a crow with red eyes, but shook her head and continued. "I have full control over the nine tails. Oh before I continue, please promise me you won't tell the old man? I swear none of this is threatening to Konoha and if you think it is, tell him only the parts that are."

Kakashi looked strangely at the blonde before him and gave her a smile before ruffling her hair, "I promise. Unless a time comes and I need to tell him due to Konoha's safety."

Her heart skipped a beat at seeing him trust her so easily before she continued, "The nine tails has a name, Kurama. A few years ago, he and I became one. It took some time since when I tried to remove the seal on the cage dad showed up fixed it, then later I broke the seal again to merge our two chakras when my mum appeared and spoke to me for long time." she gulped and held back tears as she remembered meeting her mother all those years ago. Taking a shaky breath, she tried to stabilize her breathing and when she felt Kakashi's hand on her shoulder she managed to do so. "Um, in a few months I'll be uh, starting my cycle. I can deal with that what I can't deal with is the side effect of being merged with Kurama's chakra. I'll be going into heat regularly and he is quite picky about the men he believes will be able to _help_."

Kakashi's only showing ear turned red as he understood what the girl was saying. She needed someone to sate her more carnal desires and the person had to be powerful if he understood correctly. "What is it, who?"

There was a long pause that put Kakashi on further edge. If Naruto went into heat, many men would want her and some might not be willing to listen to reason since it was the almighty nine-tailed fox demon causing those hormones to activate. If anyone dared to touch her he would have to hunt them down and give them a piece of his mind and make them do right by his senseis legacy.

He thought of different shinobi that were strong, he even went for rogues. Gai. Asuma. Iruka. Sasuke. Itachi. Genma. Raido. Ibiki. Deidara, the blonde student of the tsuchikage. Shisui, no he was dead. Shikamaru, Shikakus son. Neji, Hiashi's nephew. Perhaps the Inuzuka who was in her class. She did say she liked dogs.

He was bought out of his musings when Naruto told him who was the candidate and it made his heart drop to the pit of his stomach, "You."


	6. Chapter 6

This had been beta'd by the lovely Ankaa Sage!

He blinked. No, he had to have heard her wrong. He shook his head, raised his headband to show his other ear and poked around them both, "Could you repeat that?"

"You. The one who can sate my heat is you." _Well, at least I'm not the only one with a red face here. I have never loved wearing this mask so much._

"You need me to have sex with you?" The words sounded foreign and so very wrong. _They should! Not only is she a preteen but she's my student and the daughter of my late sensei, the yondaime Hokage! And Kushina!_ _They'd both skin me alive for even thinking of touching her! Actually, Kushina would do that, sensei would send me on constant S and A rank missions and run me ragged in the village!_ He looked around as if the ghosts of Minato and Kushina would come out at any given moment.

"I'm going on a long shot and say, you're thinking of the many ways my late parents would torture you?" when he didn't reply but got slightly paler than he usually was, she continued, "Think about what they'd do if they heard you were refusing to help their precious daughter out of something incredibly painful that won't go away unless he agreed."

He gulped at the thought. Kushina would do everything in her power to get him to help her baby girl, even if it meant using a genjutsu, and Minato would blame him for the agony his daughter would be under and then later torture him for laying a hand on his precious little girl. _Wait how does she know this?!_ "I will think about it. If it comes down to it, I would help but you're so you're young and being with me like that it would rob you of your-"

Naruto cut him short, "I have never had a childhood that warrens you to worry about, in the sense of corrupting me. My godfather is a self-proclaimed pervert that could do nothing to raise me as the village civilian council refused it. I have been treated as a monster my entire life. All I want is for people to accept me, acknowledge me, and help me love and to protect those I care about."

It made his heart ache to hear the way the blonde thought of the people around her. One could protect their village and give up their life, however that does not mean they will like you for it. Take Morino Ibiki, all the scars on his body were due to him not giving out the information he had about Konoha and when he comes home, the people he serves to protect shun him and fear him despite the fact he is a kind-hearted soul. They sat in silence for a few minutes, neither wanting to think about what the matter they had been speaking about so Kakashi started asking questions instead, "How did you know about Obito and Rin?"

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you." she looked away from him, so he couldn't see what her expression was.

"Try me. I've heard and seen a lot of unbelievable things in my life."

"You told me. A few months after I returned from my two and a half year trip with the pervy sage," she stated matter-of-factly, despite what she had said made little to no sense to the jounin.

"What?" _She's lost it. Nothing she is saying makes sense._

"I'm not from this time is what I'm trying to say."

Seconds ticked by. That crow in the distance appeared again but she ignored it. It must be Itachi giving a report to the sandaime and checking on Sasuke. Birds were chirping and you could hear the idle chatter, if you listened hard enough, of the citizens of the village as well as the sound of the wind blowing leaves. She'd have to talk with him and tell him his way of going about things was in the end useless. "I think I should go and get myself checked by Inoichi. Imagining stuff like this just isn't normal."

He made a move to go but Naruto stopped him by grabbing his wrist. "You're not hearing things, you're not imagining things and this isn't a genjutsu. I am from the future. Don't ask me how I got here because all I remember was going to the Uchiha district with Sasuke and then a red light clouds my vision and I'm here. Go on, ask me something only someone from the future would know."

Kakashi didn't know what to ask. He didn't know what to think. Here was the daughter of his late sensei and his own student saying she was from the future. It couldn't be true. Yet here she was. She had said certain things that he hadn't told her and doubted the Hokage had either. After releasing his wrist he sat back down, crossing his legs and asked, "What was Obito like?"

For a moment, Kakashi swore he saw her eyes turn red before going back to their usual blue. "He was like me, you could say but a bit like the current you. Always late but he at least used true excuses like he was helping an old lady. He liked orange, goggles, and jumpsuits and despite being an Uchiha he was really happy, loud and laid back. He had a thing for Rin as well." she bit her tongue to prevent from saying anything else, but decided now was as good a time as ever, "There's one more thing you should know about Obito. He never died that day in the cave. He's alive right now."

One, two, three, four, five, six- "What?!"

"Can we discuss this in your apartment, please? We don't exactly have any privacy for this sort of talk." He stiffly nodded and grasped her shoulder before he shunshined to his apartment.

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.

.

Sasuke wasn't happy. Although many would say he hadn't been happy since the massacre. So technically the correct term was un-amused.

Kakashi had left straight after saying they all passed their exam and Naruto had left soon after. The look that Kakashi had given the girl unnerved him a little. Like the jounin was trying to piece together a puzzle and at the same time, trying to disarm the girl.

He knew it wouldn't work. Like himself, Naruto had closed off since the massacre or more specifically, since Shisui had jumped into Naka River. He had never understood why his cousin would do such a thing, much like those members of the UPF that had questioned Itachi.

Shisui had everything to look forward to. He had a girl who would one day be his wife, he had a powerful Sharingan, he was trusted among the clan, and he was respected across Konoha. Why would a man like that kill himself?

Still, this was not why he wasn't happy. He wasn't happy because they had both left him with the screaming, squealing, pink-haired banshee that was his teammate.

He had to keep restraining himself not to strangle the girl or breathe a fireball at her. Harming his teammate was sure to stop him from being a genin.

He did his hardest to ignore the girl that clung onto his arm as he walked through the shopping district, not wanting to go to his apartment with her since she would simply be like all the other fan-girls and break in.

He was not afraid. Uchihas don't feel fear. He was being precautious.

He did, however, listen to her when she was talking about Naruto. "I will admit, he has gotten smarter and stronger but who does he think he is telling us what to do?! Sure, his plan worked but he just assumed last night that I would listen to the letter he sent! Who-?" she was cut off from her rambling by a very annoyed Sasuke Uchiha who shoved her off him.

"I would suggest you not speak ill of a person who was intended to marry into the Uchiha family. Naruto may not seem like much to you, but he and I understand loneliness. Sure he was an orphan but he felt the loss of my cousin as if he were already part of the family. Do not insult him in front of me again." Sasuke was used to addressing the Uzumaki as a male in front of other people, she had approached him years ago to not mention it to anyone. Although, now that he recalled, she had also said not to mention being engaged to an Uchiha, oops.

Once Sasuke had said his piece, he left the stupefied girl in the middle of the street.

Naruto gave the apartment a quick once over before entering, replacing her shoes with sandals. She had seen Kakashi's home plenty of times, even if this was before the attack, it was almost the same as the one after Pains attacks. The action, however, did not go unnoticed by Kakashi and he grew suspicious as to whether or not the blonde had been inside before or not. "Tea?" asked Kakashi and she nodded.

Once it was made he sat on the couch whereas Naruto sat in the center of the table, in her meditating pose once again. "You sit like that a lot. How come?"

"I'm a sage of Mount Myoboku. Meditating is something I do a lot of. It helps to sense chakras all around the land of fire. If I concentrate hard enough I can sense from even further."

Raising a brow, he stored that information for later, "Hmm about Obito-"

"I hope you don't mind if I'm a bit upset about the guy. I know he had a great impact on your life, Kakashi, but the man alongside Madara Uchiha took the nine-tails out of my mother the night of my birth, sent it to destroy Konoha and lead to the deaths of thousands, my parents included. Then, when I was sixteen he started the fourth shinobi war. He has done so much evil that despite the fact I will always try to save him, it won't stop just how much I loathe him."

"I'm still not sure if I believe you." he gave her a skeptical look, after all, she was only twelve and yet she knew things she shouldn't.

Naruto sighed, she felt a lot older than her physical body was. This Kakashi was a lot less understanding compared to future Kakashi. "About?"

"Everything. Right now, I'm resisting the urge to plow my kunai into you." She blinked at the underlying innuendo and her cheeks went slightly red, even though she knew that wasn't how he meant it. She gave him a few moments to realize what he just said and the sexual implication of it.

"I DIDN'T MEAN IT LIKE THAT!" he yelled, jumping up with his hands up in an, _I'm-innocent_ way, looking highly startled. She couldn't resist laughing at that, and as she did so, she fell off the table and banged her head on the ground. Groaning, she cradled her head in her hands and let out a startled eep when she felt another set of hands inspecting her head. "It looks fine to me." with that the hands and the warmth they gave went away. She groaned again and sat back on the table as Kakashi spoke again, "I really didn't mean it like that."

"That much I gathered, ko-Kakashi."

He raised a brow, _what was she about to say?_

"Why exactly do you want to attack me?" she asked, retaking her meditating position on the table as she took a sip of the tea Kakashi had bought in for her.

"Nothing you're saying can possibly be true. Meaning you're either under someone's control, someone bribed you to make me insane, you're insane, or you're a spy."

She made a false shocked face and raised a hand to her heart, "Such little faith in me Kakashi." internally, however, she was hurt that the man she grew to love didn't trust her.

"Sensei," he said, placing his cup on the table beside her.

"Pardon?" she tilted her head to the side slightly, confused.

"You should be calling me sensei."

She blinked a few times before saying, "I stopped calling you sensei alone when I came back with the pervy sage. I only called you sensei when we were in public. And besides! You never asked Sasuke to call you sensei! I've never heard him address you as sensei once! And I'm twenty!"

Raising his brow again, "You're a preteen."

"Fine. I _was_ twenty. I was also Hokage, dattebayo! And you're saying you don't believe me?!"

"You made Hokage at such a young age?"

"Just like my old man." she chuckled humourlessly. "I was actually younger when I became Hokage. Just before I turned seventeen," she stated, twirling her hair and giggled as she recalled Kakashi's initial reaction to her being named Hokage and not himself.

He had just come from Sunagakure, escorting Temari there when he entered his apartment only to have Naruto barrel on his screaming so loud he was surprised it didn't upset the neighbours. Once he had calmed her down he sat with her in his lap, however, she kept bouncing up and down in happiness he had barely been able to make out what she was saying. At first, he let out a sigh that he wasn't named Hokage and then finally did the words fully register. Naruto at that point had calmed down only to have Kakashi quickly stand and spin her in the air, congratulating her for making Hokage. They had spent the night _celebrating._ "Getting back to topic. I still don't believe you. How can I believe a word you're saying?"

She was about to voice out some more facts before smirking, having a devious idea. She took Kakashi's cup from her side and placed both of their cups in the lower shelf of the table and moved to lay down, using some wind to open up her chest bindings and removed her hair tie, letting it fall over her breasts that were clearly showing in her new shirt. When she spoke, she lidded her eyes and spoke seductively, "Well, do as you please, rake my brain, place a genjutsu on me, torture me or make me beg for forgiveness. I'm at your mercy." He choked on his gulp and tried to look away, yet for whatever reason, he couldn't. _She's your student. She's fourteen years younger than you! Get a grip, Hatake!_ He would have continued to berate himself if he didn't smell it. Her pheromones. Damn, they were strong and sweet smelling. He shook his head. _Don't even think about it._ "I could show you." spoke the female jinchuriki on his table.

"No!" he yelled, jumping back slightly, causing the sofa to move as well.

"I didn't mean _that_. I meant, I can show you parts of the future." she flipped her hair over her shoulder, staying in the position on the table. She seemed awfully relaxed as if used to such a provocative position.

"Why didn't you just do that in the beginning?"

"I didn't want it to come to that. I wanted you to believe me because I'm _me_. I've never done harm upon Konoha and have never lied except when it was necessary." Naruto's voice conveyed the hurt she felt at that moment. She had given her life to protect Konoha and the rest of the five nations, whilst she had never died, she most definitely would if it was needed.

Instead of apologizing, he said, "Do it. Show me what will make me believe you."

Nodding she closed her eyes and when they opened Kakashi Hatake, The Copy Ninja came face-to-face with two Sharingan eyes, which changed pattern into what was Shisui Uchihas mangekyo sharingan. Before he could ask how she had them and how she could control it, he was taken to an unknown place. Looking around he was surprised to see lush green fields with trees, flowers, a waterfall, and some buildings with animals coming in and out of, however, the one thing that really stood out was the _nine tailed fox demon!_

 **"I think you shocked your wolf, brat."**

 _"I resent that statement! Okay, we definitely shocked him, but anyone would be shocked when face-to-face with the almighty nine tail fox demon in his natural habitat."_

Standing right next to the resting fox was the blonde female he had been talking about a few moments ago. Clearing his throat he spoke, "Where are we?"

Said blonde was petting the fur around the fox's neck, _"Right now we're in my mindscape. I only managed to bring you here due to my Sharingan."_

"Shisui Uchiha's Sharingan, you mean."

She waved her hand that wasn't petting it Kurama she had said earlier.

 _"Same difference. I was engaged to him and legally speaking he left them to me however at first Danzo took one eye then he gave the other to Itachi who when I was sixteen gave it to me. Sasuke killed Danzo and when we found the body, granny Tsunade gave me Shisui's eye. Later I had them implanted and you as well as Sasuke taught me how to use them."_

"Sasuke killed Danzo?! And what was Danzo doing with Shisui's eye?"

 _"I don't know why Danzo wanted his eye, most likely for what he calls 'the benefit of Konoha'. And yes, Sasuke did kill Danzo, since he was the one who suggested Itachi kill the Uchiha clan."_

"WHAT?!"

 **"Ha-ha-ha. Your wolf always seems to lose his composure around you, brat. Even at this time."**

 _"Good to see some things don't change. Ah back to topic. The Uchiha clan were planning a coup due to the rift between the village and the clan, so Shisui and Itachi were asked to spy on them and when the time came, Itachi as a member of the ANBU black ops was told to kill the clan. Itachi said he would kill them, as long as Sasuke got to live. Itachi Uchiha, the most loyal shinobi across the five nations."_

Kakashi couldn't say anything. According to Naruto, his late friend was alive but was also the cause of a lot of death. The nine tails attack was what caused a rift between the Uchiha and the village which then caused the Uchiha massacre.

"Why did Obito attack the village?"

 _"He saw you, with your arm through Rin's heart. He didn't have the facts, didn't know she had the sanbi, Isobu, sealed inside her with a very weak seal that would self-destruct upon entering Konoha. He didn't know that she jumped in front of your Chidori in order to save her loved ones. And neither did you, Kakashi."_

 **"Can you just show your wolf what he needs to see and be done with it? I would like to sleep."**

 _"That's all you ever do, you lazy fox!"_


	7. Chapter 7

This had been beta'd by the lovely Ankaa Sage!

Kakashi couldn't help but chuckle at the two of them, despite everything he just heard. Honestly, they were fighting like an old married couple.

Huffing, the blonde Uzumaki turned to look at Kakashi after she stopped petting the fox. Her Sharingan eyes looked directly into his once one eye and asked, "What would you like to see, in order for you to believe me? And before you ask, I will not show you anything from the war or of Obito. So don't ask."

 _That sure shortened the list of things I wanted to ask._

"When I told you about Team Minato."

There was a look in Naruto's eyes that showed reluctance but she did as he had requested. She whispered something that sounded familiar, "Kotoamatsukami."

 _"Hey, Kakashi?" asked an older version of Naruto in his kitchen._

 _An older version of Naruto that was wearing nothing but one of his long blue shirts which he wore under his vest that ended mid-thigh on her. From what he could see, she had long tan legs, long blonde hair that ended at the small of the back and a very generous behind._ Head out of the gutter, Hatake. _He scolded himself._

 _"Hmm?" an older version of him appeared behind Naruto, wrapping his arms around her waist and started to kiss up and down her neck, making her giggle but didn't stop her from cooking._

 _There were a few things he noticed; one, he wasn't wearing a shirt so the shirt he had been wearing was most likely what Naruto was wearing there, two, he had no mask and wanted to know why, three, Pakkun came out of guest room to grab the paper and went back in and four, HE WAS KISSING UP A HALF NAKED NARUTO!_

 _"Could you tell me something about your old genin team?" with that future he stopped his ministrations up her neck so she continued, "You don't have to. I was just curious to find out what they were like. From what Gai-sensei said the other day, you used to be exactly like Sasuke teme before he had defected but changed after the death of the male teammate you had. I wanted to know what made you change after his death."_

 _Her voice got quieter as she spoke, as if she had been doing she shouldn't have or as if asking questions had led to her having bad experiences in the past, and that clearly affected the version of him in front of him since he turned off the gas and picked up Naruto, placing her on the kitchen dining table before getting on his knees, head on her lap as she stroked his hair almost instantaneously, his arms wrapped around the blonde, making it hard for her to escape him._

 _"You can ask me anything and everything you want without ever feeling insecure ever again. I learnt my lesson last time Naru. I hurt you unintentionally and I hated myself for it since you couldn't even look me in the eye and flinched whenever I spoke. I never wanted you to fear me. I wanted you to love me as I do you. You forgave me yet again. Heh. It seems all I can do is help with your heat and cause your heart to constantly ache. Why do you bother with me?"_

 _"You've already said why I bother with you. Because I love you. And for your information, I'm not bothered with you as you say, I'm being with you, for better or worse."_

 _That made future him laugh, "You're meant to agree to that once we're married, not before." He teased as he got up from Naruto's lap to start kissing up and down her neck again causing her to moan wantonly after he sucked on the part where the neck and shoulder met._

 _"You're trying to distract Me." she panted as he licked and nibbled at the same spot, no doubt a hickey would be left._

 _"Hmm is it working?"_

 _"Yes! No, ugh I don't know!" she let out a louder moan as he pushed her down on the table, leaning over her but before he could kiss her, she rolled over and pointed an accusing finger at him once she was standing, he looked close at her shoulder and saw she had a large hickey but as he looked at her thighs, she had some down there even on her inner thighs. He looked away, not wanting to get a peek in case she wasn't wearing any underwear. "Don't distract me! If you don't want to tell me about your team fine! Just tell me that!"_

 _Future him moved over to the couch and motioned for Naruto to join him and after looking at him skeptically she sat across his lap, head tucked under his chin as he drew little patterns on her thighs._

 _Sighing he spoke, "My team was known as team Minato. Back then, we weren't organized in numbers but by the name of our sensei. If that was the same now, we would be team Kakashi."_

 _That caused her to chuckle and look at him, "Lest you forget, koi, we are known as team Kakashi."_

 _"Ah, that we are. But only due to the fact you refused Sai to be on team 7."_

 _"Cause no one will replace Sasuke on the team!"_

 _Kissing her forehead he continued, "I know, saiai. Well anyway, as you've most likely guessed, Minato Namikaze, the yondaime hokage was my sensei before he became Hokage. My teammates were, Obito Uchiha and Rin Nohara, our roles on the team were so similar yet so different to you, Sasuke and Sakura. I was the one all for training and the rules, Obito was the joker and Rin was our medic who never took sides, unlike Sakura who always took Sasuke's side. They were the best teammates I could have asked for but I was arrogant, believing myself stronger than anyone else my age and that was what caused Obito's death. During a mission to destroy Kannabi bridge sensei had to go somewhere else, but that was planned, leaving me to lead. It was also the day I became jonin._

 _"At some point we got attacked and Rin got kidnapped. My eye was injured then and I couldn't see through it, hence the scar. I didn't want to get her straight away. At the time, rules and regulations were all I lived by. My father, Konoha's white fang had killed himself after what people said about him risking the mission over his comrades and I didn't wish for a repeat of that. It was also that day that Obito told me 'In the ninja world, those who don't follow the rules are trash. But, those who abandon their friends are even worse than trash'. He had activated his Sharingan in the battle I lost my eye. It was very powerful with two tomoes in each eye._

 _"He told me off left to save Rin and shortly after I joined him. We managed to save Rin but on our way out a boulder was about to crush me but Obito pushed me out of the way. It crushed his side."_

 _Naruto let out a gasp and looked fully into his eyes when she saw the tears he was restraining she turned till she was straddling him and placed his head between her breasts as he wrapped his arms around her tightly. "You don't have to continue if it's hurting you, koi." She kissed the top of his head but he just shook his head._

 _"No. You have every right to know, I can't keep you in the dark forever if I want you in my life as more than a secret lover. I love you more than my own life and want you to know Me." when she nodded he continued, sitting Naruto on the armrest and partly against the back and rested his head on her chest again._

That looks mighty comfy, _he thought._ I think I should lay off Icha Icha for some time. I'm really becoming a pervert.

 _"He gave me his sharingan and said to protect Rin. I swore I would and we took his goggles to give to his parents. When Minato sensei got to us, it was all over. As time passed by, I adopted some of Obito's characteristics, I was late, I acted lazy but still professionally, and I made stupid excuses and started reading Lord Jiraiyas books. Sometime after that, Rin was attacked and taken. My team was dispatched to get her back and as I was about to attack the enemy ninja, I activated my Chidori and I saw my arm through Rin's heart. She smiled at me and whispered sorry and I passed out. Later I was informed she had the sanbi sealed inside her with a weak seal that would have exploded when she entered Konoha, the seal also controlled her. And before you ask, sensei could not have removed it, it was wired straight to her heart._

 _"And again, sometime later, Minato-sensei died to seal the nine tails inside you, the only child to be born that night."_

He saw Naruto's lips moved but was taken back to the younger blonde's mindscape.

"Do you believe me now?"

Slowly he nodded before asking, "I see that in the future we were _together,_ together." once again the words sounded foreign. He tried to think what made future Kakashi start a relationship with his student, but nothing came to mind.

"I wasn't going to tell you but you just had to ask me to show you something that couldn't be disguised as anything other than us being a couple."

"Why weren't you going to tell me?" he noticed the nine tails staring pointedly at Naruto and him as if trying to scrutinize their reactions, he just couldn't figure out why.

"I didn't want you to feel obligated to be with me and I want you to know that you still don't have to feel that way. You're free to love whoever you want, even if it may hurt at first, I'm sure, at some point in my life, I'd be able to love again." then she added, "Oh and don't mind Kurama. He just wants to watch us closely to use this kinda stuff as blackmail, later on, down the line."

"You really are something, aren't you Naruto?" he smiled and ruffled her hair. "Now as much as I love being here, can we please go back to my apartment and then I could buy you some ramen?" honestly the bribery of ramen was just for them to get out of here sooner.

And it worked, one moment he was in lush fields and the next they were back in his apartment. Naruto was still in that sensual position and didn't seem to have a problem with it. "What else would you like to know, Kakashi?"

He didn't say anything at first, trying to get back into his environment as well as process the on the flux of information he was just given. At that moment he felt, even more, respect for Ibiki, Anko, Inoichi and everybody at T&I for being able to handle the large amounts of information they often get, but he assumed the information hardly came in the form of his student telling him she was from the future and that his friend he thought was dead is in fact alive.

After a half minute, he finally found his bearings and asked the first thing that came to mind, not truly thinking what he was saying, "How can you control the Sharingan?"

"Ahh. I wondered when you would ask that. The Uchiha, Senju, and Uzumaki are descendants of the riukdou sannin and therefore have similar blood coursing through them. So basically we can technically activate the Sharingan at will when we have them implanted into us. But since it has never happened before, no one knew. However after future, you placed your clan's mark on me, some of my powers transferred to you, thereby allowing you to control the Sharingan."

"I DID WHAT?!" her statement of him marking her as his forever fully woke him up.

"Really, Kakashi. You sound as loud as the old me. I have sensitive ears and I'm sure your dogs don't appreciate you being that loud." she scolded him and he felt quite embarrassed, rubbing the back of his neck.

"Sorry. I think all this information is making my head a little fuzzy thereby making me less calm." she shrugged as if it was alright, "So I gave you the Hatake mating mark?" He rubbed his temple, thinking he would need to have a few more cups of tea.

"Yup. It was a short while before I was sent here. You had done so four years after we got together and we had decided to go public with our relationship, and what's more public than your clan's mark?" she gave him a cheeky grin and raised a brow at him, challenging him to say something about their relationship.

He was about to ask why they had kept it hidden in the first place but kept his mouth shut. The answer was so obvious he felt like slapping himself for even thinking it. "Okay. Moving on. I can now say, I believe you're from the future. And as you asked me earlier, I won't tell the Hokage that, but if something dangerous is going to happen, you need to tell me so we can plan around it. I know ninjas are taken by surprise but if we have the knowledge, it'd be best to use it." he got up to make some tea but tripped landing on top of Naruto, arms braced on each side of her to that they were still at a distance but still far too close that any sensei should be to their student.

"Well, I guess I should tell you that Itachi will be coming inside here in three, two, and one." She pointed a few feet away from the table where Itachi fucking Uchiha showed up.

Remembering what Naruto had said earlier, he tried to resist getting his weapons out and pushing Naruto behind him.

"Am I interrupting you two? I can come later if needs are," spoke Itachi.

Naruto, however, shocked him by throwing her arms up as she yelled, "Itachi-senpai!"

To the complete shock of Kakashi, the prodigy smiled and patted her head, "Naruto. Long-time no see."

"You bet! Not seen you since the whole reanimation thing!" all seriousness and maturity in her voice vanished as if she went back to being an actual preteen.

"So, you came to the past as well. How long have you been back for?" he asked as he sat down in the armchair, completely disregarding the fact her sensei was on top of her.

Naruto created a clone who punched the prodigy in the arm, "A few days."

"Hn. And why is it I needed a punch to the arm, Lady Hokage?" he asked with high respect in his voice.

"Because you made me deal with Sasuke's shit for years. That's why."

"I see. And does Kakashi-senpai know the truth about you two or will I have to use the Tsukuyomi on him to make him take responsibility for his actions?"


	8. Chapter 8

This had been beta'd by the lovely Ankaa Sage!

Naruto looked confused at the elder Uchiha before a dawning look appeared on her face as she realized what he was referring to, "One, my kotoamatsukami is far more effective than your Tsukuyomi. Two, he wasn't trying anything, he just tripped. Three, you know what happened last time you used that on him! He was in the hospital for days!"

"Hn." was all he replied as he kept his stare directly on the man on top of his late best friend's fiancé. "Kakashi-senpai, how long do you plan on staying on to of her? You must know that whilst she has that necklace on, I have the right to kill any man who dares touch her."

Seeing Kakashi's perplexed look, the Uzumaki took grasp of something around her neck before closing her eyes, and when she reopened them, she opened her hand to show Kakashi her necklace, "This is the Uchiha clans equivalent to an engagement ring, since engagement rings have stones in them it makes it harder to create hand signs so a necklace is used instead. The Uchiha fan being on it is for obvious reasons but the swirl in the middle of it represents two merging clans in a wedded union. Then in the back the Namikaze clan symbol and a seal so only certain people can see it. It's basically an Uchiha way of saying 'Touch my bride and I'll kill you' and they will have all the rights to do so, kinda like your clans mating mark, if anyone dares touch someone with that mark, the clan has the right to kill them or do as they see fit." He nodded his head, it made sense and the pendant itself was beautiful, it was the size of a pointer finger rolled up (2p), round in shape on what he assumed was titanium. The clan symbols had been etched in and then painted over, he could also feel chakra coming from it. Looking closer he could see blue stones lining it and asked what they were and whose chakra was in it, to which she replied, "Oh those are basically chakra crystals from the shodaime's necklace. I'm not sure how Shisui got a hold of them, though and it's Shisui's chakra."

And was at that comment Itachi spoke up again, voice sounding slightly miffed, "Shisui asked Lady Tsunade for bits of the crystal using the excuse that if she would not give the necklace, due to the curse she believed it held, then she could at least give pieces of the crystal since you are the jinchuriki of the nine tails." Kakashi looked up to see his old ANBU partner glaring at him and had he not been a trained assassin who helped teach him, he would have cowered under the infamous Uchiha glare.

"Oh, that's enough Itachi! And Kakashi! As much as I love you on top of me-" the glare she felt became even stronger as Kakashi's face went red, "-I need you to get off me since I think Itachi is about ready to kill you."

He jumped off her as is she was being burnt by the Amaterasu's black flame itself, his hands once again taking the, _I'm-innocent_ pose.

He suddenly regretted that decision, however, when he started to feel dizzy as Naruto got up to give the Uchiha a hug as he spun her in the air, laughing could be heard from the blonde as Itachi had a smile on his face.

 **He fainted.**

Kakashi Hatake of the Sharingan fainted. Though, in all fairness, after the amount of information, he was just given as well as seeing a well-known clan murderer in his apartment is very friendly with his student, no one could blame him.

It didn't mean people said people couldn't laugh about it. He was the student of the yondaime Hokage, the one to master control of a Sharingan eye and be able to use it to all its available capabilities. The teacher to the woman who united the five nations. How his predecessors would either be laughing their heads off or face-palming.

After he had fainted, Itachi placed the older man on the sofa as Naruto and he started to discuss what they will do with their future knowledge and agreed on the following; Itachi will act the same as he had last time but since he has the required information to stop Orochimaru, he should try without looking suspicious, next he will warn Pain about Madara, Naruto will tell Sasuke after the preliminaries about Itachi who will join up with them after the chunin exams. If they decided on anything else they will inform each other via summons. After that Itachi left to go back to Kisame who was a couple of villages away from their current location.

Sighing, Naruto got up and rifled through Kakashi's cabinets and fridge to look for something to cook. When she saw there was hardly anything in his kitchen she decided to send a clone to Ichirakus for a few bowls of ramen, on her. Whilst her clone did that, she decided to take out some of her fuinjutsu supplies and make a new seal for controlling all elements properly.

With the Sharingan and the power of Ashura, she was able to use all the elements, however, using earth, fire and lightning used far more chakra than it should, even though she had the chakra of the nine tailed beasts, it was best to have better control over it.

However, no matter what she did, it just wasn't right. She already had a seal on her arm that allowed her to control the elements better, but it wasn't enough. With the amount of chakra she used, anyone would be able to sense her even if they were rookies.

 _I need to have better control over both my yin-yang release. Maybe then I'll be able to, no that's not it. Come on! I'm a citizen of fire country! I should be able to use fire no problem!_

 **"You may have been born here, however, your mother was from Uzushiogakure that had high levels of control over wind and water, whereas your father had control over wind, fire, and lighting. Theoretically, you should have been able to do fire and lightning techniques with less chakra but that isn't the case here. Perhaps you could ask the wolf for some assistance whilst he is your teacher."**

 _"You're meant to make me feel better, fur-ball."_

 **"Who do you think you are calling a fur-ball?!"**

 _"You. Because you constantly roll into a ball and you're furry."_

 **"Enough of this. Get back to work, woman."**

Deciding to ignore the jab of being a woman, she continued to rake her brain for ways to improve her use of fire and lighting thinking if she used more of the other tailed beasts chakra it would help but thought against it as people would notice if she had several different chakra signatures leaking out of her.

In the end, she agreed with Kurama to get Kakashi to train her on how to use those two elements better. She had never wanted to in the future as people would question her strength if she went to someone else for help which always bugged her.

At some point in the afternoon, Kakashi woke up and when she asked him, over a bowl of ramen, if he would teach her how to use fire and lightning more efficiently, he reluctantly agreed. She also got him to agree to train the team properly this time since last time he hadn't and Sasuke left the village.

Not that she blamed Kakashi for that, not at all, he had taught the guy how to use Chidori last time after all. No, this time he would have to train them together as a team so Sasuke would understand the importance of bonds and not vengeance.

She left sometime after four. They had been together for four hours. She shrugged as she used the hiraishin to go to the valley of the end, sitting atop the shodaimes head, after having left a note on her door saying where she had gone, if anyone came to look for her.

Looking around, she couldn't help but reminisce about her battle here with Sasuke when they were both thirteen. She had been trying to use and push away Kurama's chakra back then and look at her now.

Having complete control not only over Kurama's chakra but the chakra of all tailed beasts.

She thought back to what the rikudou sannin had said, Indara and Ashura being reborn over and over in different bodies. Would that still happen? She still had the power granted to her so taking her meditating pose she tried to access the power to reach the old man, but felt a block. Frowning, she tried again only to find the same block once again.

Huffing, the made a mental tab to get back to that whenever she could. She really did need to know if Sasuke would be able to use Indra's powers anytime soon or if she would have to do something in order to trigger them. _Hmm... I could always use the kotoamatsukami-_

 **"You like that jutsu too much, especially when you factor in it's not yours but the Uchiha clans."**

 _"Admit it, if it wasn't an Uchiha kekkei-genkai then you would have no problem with me using it."_

 **"But of course. I know the boy loved you very much, however, my hatred over the Uchiha's will never wane."**

 _"Don't you ever get bored of always being angry?"_

 **"Never. It makes my enemies fear me and cower whenever they see me when they feel my hatred."**

 _"You're a lost cause Kurama. Well as long as you're not as annoying as before, go right ahead."_

 **"Brat."** With that final jab, he went back to sleep. Again.

 _He could out-sleep a Nara._ She thought to herself. As she watched the sunset she felt tired and fell asleep.

She woke up the next morning at sunrise at the valley of the end and quickly hiraishined back to her apartment, praying no one had noticed she hadn't returned last night.

Alas, lady luck was not on her side as when she entered the whole of team 7 were making themselves at home. Well, Kakashi was making himself at home whereas Sasuke and Sakura looked like they didn't want to be anywhere near there, which was odd since Sasuke was used to being here, meaning they had a serious conversation or Kakashi made a rude comment.

She counted her blessings that she had cleaned her apartment the other day otherwise it would have looked very messy.

.

.

.

Kakashi was confused. After Naruto had left his apartment he went to the memorial stone to talk to Obito and Rin, once he had spent a few hours there he left to go for a walk. He found himself in the apartment district that was made for young orphans when he saw something white on a door that had the Uzumaki swirl on it which he assumed was Naruto's. No one else in Konoha would have a door that stood out like that.

He walked up the stairs that led to the apartment and saw it was, in fact, a note saying the blonde female was in the valley of the end. Nothing too suspicious besides the fact that she had left the village and no one knew. Ideally, he should be going to the Hokage and telling him she was out of the village but thought against it. It wasn't something to be concerned about, she was made Hokage and had the power of a sage and the nine tails.

He suddenly had a thought that mentally gave him a large evil grin. He would go get his little genins and make them stay here until she returned. Nodding to himself he went made a clone go to Sakura whilst he went to the Uchiha, who lived nearby anyway.

He shunshined to the apartment he knew the Uchiha was staying in and knocked. He was greeted by the sight of wet haired Sasuke Uchiha followed by some cats.

"Kakashi? What are you doing here? We don't have a mission, do we? Or are we training?" the boy asked after having enough of the jonin not saying anything.

Giving him a small eye smile he ruffled the dark hair before replying, "Well, not really. Naruto seems to have gone out for a bit and I wanted us to do some team bonding. So we will all wait in her apartment." Sasuke was surprised to hear their jonin sensei knew she was a girl however decided to ask something when Kakashi asked him, "Do you have a key to her apartment? I know she trusts you as you're the last thing besides the necklace of hers that remains of Shisui Uchiha."

Sasuke's eye grew wide. He not only knew she was a girl, he knew she was engaged to his late cousin and that she wore a necklace. Said necklace had a seal on to make sure no one but the Uchiha could see it, and of course, those who meant her harm, telling them that if they laid a hand on her, they would face the wrath of the Uchiha clan.

Realizing what he had done, Sasuke changed his expression blank again and went to get Naruto's keys from under his pillow. He came out and as the two of them made their way down they were greeted by Sakura and another Kakashi who waved at them and vanished.

"Sasuke! Kakashi-sensei! What are we doing here?" asked the pink haired girl so loud it grated at Kakashi's sensitive hearing. She looked around and definitely recognized what this was, however, as she looked there was a hint of disdain. _She must know that Naruto lives here._

"Team bonding at Naruto's." was all the Uchiha said as they made their way up to her apartment.

They stopped at her door and Sakura asked, "Wait! There's a note." both males rolled their eyes, they weren't blind. Reading it she said, "He's in the valley of the end? What for? Never mind. If he's not here then how are we going to do this?" They both ignored her and Sasuke took the key out of his pocket to open the door, "Wait, why do you have his keys?!"

After having had enough Sasuke turned around and let Kakashi open the door, "I told you before. Naruto was engaged to an Uchiha. With the Uchiha all dead, it's my responsibility to make sure no harm comes to him. Now stop being so annoying and be a normal kunoichi, would you? I am seriously considering going to the sandaime and asking for a replacement." with that he went inside and changed his shoes to sandals looking at home and not long after she was following the male members of Team 7.

As he walked in, Kakashi looked at all the pictures. Some of ramen bowls, some with the sandaime, however, the ones that caught his eye were the ones including the Uchiha's. Fugaku, Mikoto and some of the UPF were in a few, however, the most consisted of Itachi, Sasuke, and Shisui. What really caught his eye was in all the pictures the Uchiha's were smiling, not nearly as wide as Naruto, but smiling none the less.

Turning around, he saw Sakura look at all the pictures with both curiosity and envy. He would need to have another serious word with her if she didn't change her way soon or he would have to replace her. If envy got out of control it could lead to harm to the team, both emotionally and physically.

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Clearing her throat they all turned to look at her, "Why are you all in my apartment so early in the morning?"

The younger members of team 7 turned to glare at Kakashi who simply went over to her and ruffled her hair. "Well technically we were here last night but alas you weren't here. So I told these two we'd be staying here till you came home."

Slowly nodding she spoke, "Okay, why were you here?"

"Kakashi-sensei came to my and Sasuke's homes saying we had to do some team bonding exercises to get to know each other better. Personally and professionally."

Naruto raised a brow at Kakashi she whispered, "When I said we should work on our team collaboration, this isn't what I had in mind."

"Maa, never mind. Work with me here." with that said he turned around and smacked his hands together, "Right, Naruto. Where do you keep your cooking supplies and food?"

"Most of my food and supplies are in scrolls except those foods that have to go in the fridge," she replied slowly, not liking where this was going.

"Good, good. Which scrolls?"

"The ones in the cabinets."

"Naruto why would you keep them in scrolls?" Sakura was the first to lose to her curiosity. Again.

"No one will be able to steal or damage them if they're in scrolls. Also, if I need to suddenly leave, they're all easily accessible," she replied before. When Kakashi froze she realized what she had said, whoops.

"Why would anyone want to do that?"

"You know not many people like me in the village, Sakura. Put two and two together, won't you?" she replied, for the classes top kunoichi, she wasn't very smart.

Before Sakura could open her mouth again Kakashi spoke up again, "Maa, Naruto. Could you get the ingredients required for something quick and simple?"

"How about eggplant and tomato soup?" Two sets of eyes looked at her with gleams in their eyes, and the heads they belonged to nodded vigorously.

However, there was one person in the room that disagreed, "That may sound healthy and nice to you Naruto, but I have to maintain my weight and-"

"And get blown away by a wind jutsu whilst you're at it. Without the proper nutrients, you'll never be able to get strong and look after yourself or be a useful kunoichi." she snapped. She really hated this Sakura. The one that was nothing more than a fan-girl who was all talk and no game.

"And what would the class dead last know?"

"Apparently a great deal more than you. Do you want to keep up your stupid diet? Fine. Don't come crying to any of us when you get injured or fatigue from the work you'll have to do. And don't come crying when you get injured either. You think being a kunoichi or a shinobi means you can do as you please? It may be your body, but you serve Konohagakure, you cannot protect it's people if you're frail like a civilian." she paused to let it sink into the pinkette. "If you don't want to eat my cooking, don't whine about it and get something for yourself."

Everyone looked shocked at the blondes reaction and Naruto half expected Kakashi to cool down the room, but to her shock and everyone else's as well, Sasuke was the one who stepped in, "Sakura. Firstly, you're being very rude to Naruto. This is his home and he gets to make as he pleases. We are the ones who trespassed and he was kind enough to agree to feed us. Secondly, what Naruto said is true and if you don't change your ways, we can always request to have a change of teammate due to incompetence. Now, will you stay here with us all and eat what we're going to work together to cook, or will you leave and get something you prefer to eat?"

Naruto has had enough of this conversation, went to the kitchen and took out the necessary ingredients and tools to make the soup. She saw Kakashi enter the kitchen with her and leaned against the counter and quietly spoke, "Care to tell me why you were in the valley of the end?"

"Reminiscing the time Sasuke shoved the Chidori through me when he defected."

"He what?!"

"Shhh! Do you want them to walk in whilst we're having this discussion?" he shook his head, "He defected sometime after the chunin exam. Don't worry about it, I and Itachi have a plan for that."

Nodding his head, he decided to drop it and choose a different topic, "Why did you have a go at Sakura? And I'm not reprimanding you, she needs to learn sooner or later, preferably sooner."

She noticed everything was out so she gave another knife and chopping board to Kakashi and they both started cutting up the vegetables in front of them, "I can't stand looking at her. She always used to hit me in this time but in the future, stuff happens and she becomes a strong kunoichi and has amazing healing skills. This one is nothing more than a fan-girl. She was actually the apprentice of Lady Tsunade and had her monstrous strength as well. That's something you can get her to work on. Strength and medical ninjutsu. She had accepted me after some time but in the end, we were good friends. Funny thing is, I was arguing with Sasuke to take part in the CRA when I got sent here." She and Kakashi put the necessary ingredients in the pot as Sasuke and Sakura came into the kitchen, and both set off to help the two already cooking.


	9. Chapter 9

**This has been beta'd by Ankaa Sage! Thank-you so much!**

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Team 7 were waiting for their jounin sensei at the bridge when a very loud and childish voice called out, "Boss!"

All three of them turned and saw a boy with a very long red scarf and goggles as well two other kids with the same goggles. Konohamaru Sarutobi and his two friends Moegi and Udon. Not that Sasuke and Sakura knew that. "Konohamaru. Are these your friends?" Asked the blonde as soon as she got up and crouched down to their level.

Konohamaru shook his head vigorously, yes. "They sure are boss! This is Moegi and Udon!"

Said children shyly introduced themselves politely so Naruto gave a smile and introduced herself and her team, "I'm Naruto Uzumaki. These are my teammates; Sasuke Uchiha and Sakura Haruno. Guys this is the old man's grandson. Anyway, Konohamaru, what are you doing here?"

"Hiding from Ebisu-sensei!"

Raising a brow, she picked the boy up and put him on her hip, "And why are you doing that? Hmm?" Konohamaru knew Naruto was a girl but also knew she was pretending to be a boy, so he also knew to keep it a secret.

Sakura watched wondering what Naruto was doing, whereas Sasuke had a small smile on his face. _If cousin Shisui hadn't killed himself, Naruto and he would have been very happy together, after all, she's a natural with kids._ "He keeps yelling!" he started to wail and to hide in Naruto's neck and soon they could all hear the distinct sound of Ebisu-sensei.

"Konohamaru, Moegi and Udon! Just where do you think you are-" he stopped mid-sentence when he saw them all around Naruto Uzumaki, except Konohamaru, who was on her hip.

"Oh, Ebisu-sensei! Long time no see! Were you looking for these three?" Naruto asked coyly.

Moving his glasses up he said, "As a matter of fact, yes, I was. We have training to do so if you don't mind-"

"Oh, Konohamaru was very much hoping to see me and my team train. It might just motivate him and the others to train properly if they saw us, 'tebayo. And if you don't like that idea, we could help them train as well, giving pointers here and there?"

Next thing Ebisu knew, he was face-to-face with three sets puppy dog eyes, however before he could speak up a very familiar _pop_ sounded, "Yo! I see Konohamaru and his friends are here. Well done. Now then, where should we start, Ebisu-sensei?" asked Kakashi.

"Uh- umm, I think we should work on their chakra control."

There were quite a few groans, Naruto, however, gave a small smile and tried to motivate them, "Well I do need training in that area. After all, I've got a bottomless pit of chakra and Sasuke himself sure does have a lot of chakra as well."

Kakashi gave her a look over the side and ruffled her and Sasuke's hair, "My team can demonstrate how to balance a leaf on their foreheads, giving some pointers and then we can work on tree walking. Does that sound alright to you, Ebisu-san?"

"Y-yes. Quite alright. Right! Come along you three, time to train."

The eight of them made their way to a nearby training ground and sat down with a leaf each. Naruto spoke up first, "It's really easy when you get the hang of it. I'd suggest meditating first in order to find and feel your chakra and when that's done try and let it out. Not too much or the leaf will fly away and not too little cause it won't stay. Here, I'll show you." she took out her hand and closed her eyes, making a show of reaching her chakra and letting some out. Orange tinged her hand as she opened her eyes again, "My chakra is different to your average person. Most likely due to my Uzumaki blood, so don't mind to color. See how I've only let out a little?" when she received three nods she continued, "This is all you need, maybe even less but I can't condense my chakra anymore than this." she placed the leaf onto her chakra and it absorbed it. She willed it to move and it did. Then she put a lot of chakra into it and it flew a few feet away. "That's what happens when you put in too much chakra. Why don't you guys have a go?" everyone had a go at doing it besides Kakashi and Ebisu. Leaning over Naruto whispered into Kakashi's ear, "I can already walk up trees and water, but I'm going to pretend I can't." he nodded and they watched as the three kids tried to get their leaves to stick but weren't able to get out their chakra.

"Why don't you three try meditating to feel your chakra before letting it all out, like Naruto suggested earlier?" asked Kakashi.

"Because boss didn't meditate!"

This earned a chuckle from the blonde, "You're right, I didn't. But I know where my chakra is, what it looks like, what it feels like, how potent it is and what it can do when touched by others. Can you say the same?" when she received three no's she continued, "Meditate then let it out. When you can do at least two of things I said I can do, then you can move on, okay? And when you can I'll make you all your favorite dishes and we can eat together, how's that?" Sasuke, Kakashi, Sakura, and Konohamaru all looked at her, trying to resist the urge to drool. They all had some of her cooking and it tasted exquisite. If she quit being a kunoichi, she should go into cooking, she'd make a killing. (pun intended)

Team 7 left the four of them to work on finding their chakra, going down the field to some trees, when Kakashi spoke up, "Okay so we're gonna be working on climbing trees."

"But sensei, we already know how to climb trees," whined Sakura when she saw no one else was going to.

"He means walking up trees without your hands," replied Naruto.

"What are you blabbing on about now?"

"Naruto isn't blabbing. Look, I'll show you." with that Kakashi walked up the tree, shocking Sakura whilst Assume and Naruto looked as if it was normal, and it was. "Now all you have to do is fuse some chakra into your feet. Not too much or you'll blow up part of the tree and not too less or you won't be able to stick with it. Okay, you all have a go." with that he jumped down with bent knees and took out his _book._

 **"You complain yet you've read all of them yourself."**

 _"I'm not complaining, but I know all he's going to do is read and Ebisu sensei is going to get annoyed for Kakashi being a pervert in front of kids."_

Sakura reached the top of the tree first due to her small chakra reserves and she looked rather smug about it. _She wouldn't be so smug if she knew why she was so good at it. Maybe I should shove her on water and see what happens then._

 **"Which one of us is the evil one?"**

 _"You. I'm the sadist."_

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Sakura was gleeful.

Naruto had been grating on her nerves since the day of team placements, his behavior seemed so strange. He wasn't acting like his old, goofy, dead last self. No, he was more smart, stronger and deadlier. Even she could see that. Yet she ignored it. Naruto was and always will be the dead last in her eyes and nothing will change that.

She was gleeful because she finally got one up on Naruto, she was able to do something her blonde teammate couldn't do, and that made her better than him. She paid no mind to Sasuke not being to climb the tree yet because the Uchiha had a lot of chakra. She never paused to think that that was also the reason the blonde was unable to get up.

Her gleeful mood went down, however, when she saw Naruto go to Kakashi. _What is he doing?_

She decided to eavesdrop on them, she fused some chakra into her ear and listened in, pretending to be reading the scroll in front of her, "-you in far less than that, Kakashi. No need to be shy." with that the blonde went back to climbing up the tree. She didn't understand the part of the conversation that she had heard.

 _Naruto usually calls him sensei, so where did the honorific go? Why didn't sensei call him out on it? It's disrespectful to use it! And why did the idiot call him shy?!_

She paid no mind to the fact Sasuke never calls Kakashi, sensei, or to the fact that it was none of her business, or to the fact she had intruded in on a private conversation. What she did pay mind to, was when Sasuke went up to the blonde and asked for help. _I'm right here! Ask me for help! Not the blonde idiot that still can't get up the tree!_

Inner Sakura was agreeing with her. However, she didn't have much time to think about the two of them as Kakashi came her way with a look that chilled her to the bone.

Naruto did the same as she had happened last time, compete with Sasuke. At some point, she called Kakashi over to talk in the corner and said, "I've developed this seal that allows us to transfer thoughts. I made it back in my original time and you were rather creative with your thoughts. But, anyway, this will help us talk to each other without raising too many questions. If they ask why I came up to you now, it's because I asked you for advice. Do you want me to put it on you, or do you think you could manage?"

"I have very little skill in fuinjutsu and would prefer it not to blow up in my face."

"Alright, remind me later because I need you shirtless to do it." That caused him to raise a brow which in turn made her chuckle, "I've seen you in far less than that Kakashi. No need to be shy." with that she walked up the tree and made it past Sasuke, yet making it close enough for him to not get frustrated.

An hour later Sasuke came to her and asked, "Hey Naruto? What were you and Kakashi talking about earlier?"

"Hmm? Oh! I asked him for some advice on how to walk up trees 'tebayo!"

After some time of not hearing a reply Sasuke's patience snapped, "Well? What did he say?"

"He just said to make sure you stabilize your chakra and not let it fade, keep the flow steady and continuous."

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Kakashi wasn't annoyed. No that was too tame a word. He was pissed. Not that he allowed himself to show that.

Instead, as he approached the pink haired female he gave her a chilly smile and was pleased when her spine stiffens with a slight quiver. "Sakura," he said. He was trying to get her to break by staring with no words.

"Y-yes Kakashi s-sensei?" she squeaked out, as she unconsciously nudged back a bit. She was afraid yet did not want to show it. She wasn't doing very good at that.

He gave her a bigger, yet faker, smile and asked, "Hmm, I was wondering why were you listening in on the conversation Naruto and I were having? I thought I asked you to study the scroll?"

She gulped so loud Kakashi entertained the idea that his ninken could hear it from his home. "W-well I uh don't know?"

His fake smile never wavered, "You don't know why you stopped studying, fused chakra into your ear, and listened into a private conversation?" he tilted his head and released a tiny bit of KI for good measure. She once again moved backward and looked around for someone or something to help. She saw none and still gave him no reply. "Well?" she looked back at her teacher, fear showing in her eyes, "If you won't tell me why, I expect you to tell me what you heard." The last thing he needed was for Sakura to have heard Naruto saying he needed to take off his upper clothing. And that she had seen him in far less.

Not that student-teacher relationships were looked down on when one became a genin, no, it was only looked down on when they were still in the academy. There is no cheating when it comes to raising in the ranks. However, this student-teacher relationship would cause lots and lots of eyes to be on them. The jailer of the nine tail fox demon and the copy ninja who was her father's student. Not that many people knew that little detail, but still. He feared what Itachi would do for laying a hand on his favorite cousin's fiance or what Sasuke would do, he held back a shiver.

"J-just something about less a-and uh about you not needing to-to be shy!" her voice quivered as she spoke, so he decided to remove his KI and she stopped shaking, but the fear was still in her eyes.

He mentally let out a sigh of relief, they were okay. "Right, now tell me, why you eavesdropped and why you thought you could get away with it?"

"I-I-I wanted to know what he was saying-" Kakashi blanked out the rest. All he heard was a bunch of excuses anyway. The part he heard clearly was that Sakura thought Naruto was a boy, he would have to work around that in the future.

"Well I want you to do five laps around Konoha, no stopping in between, and I will know if you do, I know everyone in Konohagakure and they know me. And if you do it again," he leaned in and whispered into her ear, "I'll have your rank stripped and make sure you never become or go near a shinobi or kunoichi again. Am I clear?" He leaned back when she nodded her head vigorously and stopped his _interrogation-mode_ giving her a pointed look that told her to start her laps.

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Nodding the two rivals went back to it, this time Sasuke managed to go quite a bit higher so Naruto went even higher and unlike last time, it only took him eleven hours to get it, Naruto making sure they tied it reaching the top of the tree.

"Well done you three! Tomorrow we will be taking a mission to be here at six and we'll go to the office together." he raised a hand and poofed to his apartment, Naruto bade the others goodbye and shunshined to Kakashi.

He was standing in his corridor after having just changed his shoes for sandals when Naruto decided to tease him a little, "Alright Kakashi, time to strip!"

He jumped up when he heard her, he hadn't sensed her come and had also forgotten their earlier discussion. "Is there any need to make it sound so-"

Raising a brow she walked through the corridor of his apartment and sat down on the table again, pointing for Kakashi to sit across her, "No matter what you think, you're not a pedo. That'll be Orochimaru. Now sit and take off your upper clothing!"

As she said that Pakkun entered the living-room, "Hey Kakashi! Who's this? Wasn't she here the other day?" he jumped onto her lap and smelt her, "Yup, definitely. So why do you have a girl here? Are you finally going to-?"

Kakashi cut him off before he could continue, "NO! Naruto do you want to explain?"

Shrugging, she started to pet the ninken, "I'm basically from the future and need a person to confide in that can help me with multiple things, so Kakashi and I were close, I chose him to help. Right now, I'm here to place a seal on him." As she spoke Kakashi started to take off his vest and shirt, leaving on his mask before she continued, "Take the mask off Kakashi, I already know what you look like underneath it. And whenever we're in private, just take it off, I know it snags at your skin at times." he sighed and did as she said.

Despite wearing a mask for a majority of his life, he still felt irritated at times wearing it, especially in winter and summer. Naruto used some wind to move Kakashi and the sofa closer to her since she didn't want to move with Pakkun on her lap, who had fallen asleep in less than ten seconds. "Right, whereabouts would you prefer the seal to be?" he thought about it for a few moments before pointing to the area above his lift armpit. Nodding to herself she bit her thumb and placed it where he had pointed and envisioned the seal and soon after, the blood that was dripping onto Kakashi turned into the seal.

Removing her hand she licked the excess blood as Kakashi asked, "How does it work?"

"Well think something and think of me as you do, it can be a pain sometimes when you're thinking and accidentally send them to me, so to avoid that, think of a wall that has a locked door on it, when you want to talk to me via this link, open the door and when you're done, lock it again. We will both be able to tell when the other has 'locked the door' so if it's an urgent thought we can force our way through. Does that make sense?" he gave a small nod.

 _It makes sense but at the same time sounds complicated_. He thought.

"I guess."

"He looked startled, "Did I-?"

"No. You didn't say that out loud. I heard your thoughts. Now try making your wall and door."

He tried to do so, however, Naruto kept saying it wasn't strong enough to keep his private thoughts to himself so it took them about forty minutes to get it. Once he did, Naruto bade him goodnight and left via hiraishin, forgetting to take her shoes.

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Sasuke was once again confused. Straight after training both Kakashi and Naruto had gone, again. It seemed whenever they had a training or just doing normal D rank missions, once they were done, they would share a brief look and leave separately simultaneously.

What he couldn't understand was where they would go. Were they doing extra training on their own? Was usually something he thought of a lot but thought against it. Naruto would always insist on doing things together or at least have the same amount of attention given to each member of Team 7.

There were very little other things they could get up to. However once or twice he had entertained the idea that they had a less _conventional_ relationship. One that was hidden behind closed doors.

But then he remembered the grief on Naruto's face as she cried herself to sleep when the knowledge of Shisuis suicide reached her. She had come all the way to the main house, not believing the UPF when they had told her the news. His mother had tried to console her but she wouldn't allow her to. She hadn't allowed anyone besides himself and his brother near her that day.

The weeks that came after were a blur as the both were mourning the dead, yet she had been his rock during that time. Cooking him food that his mother had taught her, bringing him his clothes to change into. She had even looked for an apartment for him and moved his things into it so he wouldn't have to see the blood everywhere.

He never gave it much thought before, but she had done a lot. She had gone into the district on her own, for him. And she had asked for nothing in return.

He banished the thought of Kakashi and her being together. He knew she would go to him before starting such a relationship.

The next time he sees her, he would ask where she always went. And where Kakashi went as well.


	10. Chapter 10

**This has been beta'd by Ankaa Sage! Thank-you so much!**

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"Fox in position."

"Emo in position."

"Banshee in position."

"Fox, jump out in three, two one. Now!"

Naruto jumped and grabbed the demon that took the form of a cat. "I caught the cat. I repeat I caught the damn demon." She replied as she lowered her hand from her earpiece. They weren't as advanced as the ones from her time so they made a slight crackling noise as everyone spoke.

Tora the cat was currently struggling in, trying to claw at the blonde who was keeping it at arms distance from her face. "You know Naruto I think we need to work on the part that you repeat." Said Kakashi as the rest of team 7 came down to join her. In return, she gave him the stink eye.

"And you need to think of more creative names scarecrow." She replied as she tried to pass him the cat.

He raised his hands, "I'm a dog person and you know it." He gave her a small glare as she once again tried to pass him the cat.

"You know, I don't think even Matatabi is this annoying." She said as she glared, wishing she could just Amerterasu the thing.

"Baka, What's a Matatabi?" asked Sasuke as he grabbed the cat and instantaneously it calmed down causing Naruto to glare harder.

"Matatabi is the name of the two-tailed cat. I think _she_ would have more manners and she's an actual demon." She said exasperatedly as they all made their way back to the tower.

"Um, Naruto?" asked Sakura, but when she didn't continue the blonde looked at her with an expression that said _well-go-on_ , "How do you know that?"

"Hmm about Matatabi?" when the other female member of the team nodded she placed both of her hands behind her neck, "Well I am the host of the nine tails."

"Oh, I see. That makes sense- WAIT WHAT?!" the last part was yelled by both preteens as they stared at the blonde with wide eyes who told them to keep it down. "How are you its host? What is a host? Wasn't it killed by the yondaime?"

Raising a brow she saw Kakashi look at her despite having his book out.

 _"Tell them if you want to Naruto. I cannot tell them, but you can. The ban does not apply to you telling others."_

Unconsciously she nodded and replied, "Well you can't kill a tailed beast. They're beings of mass chakra and nothing else. You can't destroy or kill chakra. So instead, using a technique developed by the Uzumaki clan but with his own seal, he got me, as I was the only child born that night and sealed it in me. Well half of it, the other half was sealed inside him before dying however I now have access to that part of the nine tails power as well."

They made it to the tower and she stopped talking. Sasuke and Sakura were bursting to ask more questions but decided against it. It was clearly a big secret and the fact she had shared it with them meant a lot. Also, they didn't know who knew, if people knew she was the vessel to the thing that killed the yondaime they would harm her.

Simultaneously, both sets of eyes widened as they recalled parents, shopkeepers, children and much more staying away as the adults called her a demon. Sasuke recalled she had sometimes come back to Shisui's place in the males arms as she had a wound she was bleeding from, he would always have a murderous look in his eyes, but as young as Sasuke had been, he had never put much thought into it.

As they stood outside the door about to enter Tora started to act up so Naruto turned her eyes to red with Kurama's chakra and it calmed down, shivering slightly but at least not trying to escape.

As they opened the door, the fire daimyos wife cried at cooed at her _precious Tora_ who for once did not try to run as Naruto had yet to return her eyes back to their natural blue. Madam Shijimi paid for the mission and took her leave back home.

The majority in the room sighed as they left, as the others stared in shock that Tora was not trying to escape and turned to team 7 to ask why when they saw Naruto's eyes and grabbed their kunai, jumping in front of their kage. "My lord, what should we do?" asked one of the chunin guarding the Hokage.

Kakashi pulled Naruto behind him as he had one hand on a kunai and another on his headband, the part that covered his eye. "Lay one hand on her and I'll personally show you why I am feared across all five nations." He growled and everyone faltered slightly, shocked that the man was defending the person who jailed the demon that killed his sensei.

Naruto placed a hand on Kakashi's arm and tried to move around him till be growled at her, so instead, she peeked around him, ignoring the confused and startled looks on her teammate's faces, "Oh don't get your ninja wire in a twist. I just wanted to scare the damn cat." She closed her eyes and when she reopened them they were back to normal.

Those protecting their leader looked back to ask for further instructions. They blanched when they saw him simply sitting as he smoked his pipe, "Well Naruto you seem to have given my ninja a fright." He chuckled slightly and signaled for everyone to stand down but that wasn't enough for Kakashi to calm down as he placed an arm behind him to keep Naruto pinned to his back.

She rolled her eyes and spoke, " _I'm fine Kakashi, really. They can't hurt me so please calm down."_

 _"I won't calm down. They tried to hurt you just because your eyes were red."_

Unconsciously he let out another growl which caused Naruto to sigh and roll her eyes before jumping up to hang off his back, legs around his hip, arms around his neck and lips next to his visible ear, "Now, now please calm down Kakashi koi." She whispered as she inhaled his scent and allowed her pheromones to leak, only slightly to calm him down and was rewarded by his shoulders slacking.

The sandaime raised a brow and made a mental note to question one of them about this at a later time, preferably in private. Clearing his throat he spoke, seeing as Naruto had yet to get off Kakashi's back and the male didn't seem to mind as he gripped her legs tightly, "Well done team 7. You may collect your pay whenever you like downstairs. Now, what mission would you like next? We have another D rank here-."

He was interrupted by the sound of a whining blonde jinchuriki, "Oh come one old man! Can't you give us anything with a higher rank?"

The Hokage raised a hand to stop Iruka from speaking, "Kakashi, do you think they can handle it?"

He gave a contemplative look before voicing his opinion, "They have a good team bond and have managed to complete all exercises I have put them through, including surviving against me for a few hours."

"Very well I will give you-." He was once again cut off by the blonde.

"Dibs on any escort missions to Wave." The blonde then took to rubbing her nose up and down Kakashi's covered throat.

"As it so happens we have one such mission, Naruto have you been looking through my things again?" said blonde gave no reply as she was basking in Kakashi's scent, trying to rub as much of it as she could onto herself.

 _When we're done here I'm stealing one of your shirts._ She gave an unconscious mental growl as well, causing the copy ninja to shift slightly as he tried to get rid of the picture of future Naruto in nothing but his shirt.

He was brought back to earth when he called the sandaime call his name, "Um could you repeat that lord third?" he raised one hand to scratch the back of his head as he gave an eye smile.

He pointed behind them all where a man holding a sake bottle entered from, said man spoke up after having a brief look at them, "So I'm going to be protected by some brats, one who still gets piggy back rides?" he snarled.

Said person wasn't paying any attention so Sasuke took to their defense, "I was rookie of the year, Sakura the kunoichi of the year, Naruto has tremendous chakra reserves capable of doing anything she sets her mind on and Kakashi is a jounin. We are more than enough to handle a C rank escort mission. I mean, the worst we are going to expect is some run of the mill bandits." He gave the man who sandaime had called Tazuna the infamous Uchiha glare.

At said glare, he quietened down, however that did not stop him from scoffing, "Team 7. Gather your things and be at the gate in three hours. Make sure you've taken care of anything here. I expect we'll be gone for some weeks." With that, he shunshined to his apartment, Naruto still on his back where she surprising had fallen asleep very quickly.

Gently, he placed her on his bed and got his supplies ready then made his way to Naruto's apartment to gather her things. He knew Naruto didn't get much sleep at night, she spent most of her nights on top of her fathers' head, meditating, training, absorbing nature energy and trying to break the wall that seemed to be between her and the rikudou sennin. All but the last having any fruition.

He came back only a few minutes after, Naruto usually kept her things in scrolls since she left the village often. She never told him where she was going unless he asked which he mostly did, and whenever he did ask, she was leaving to go to Amegakure to speak to a person called Nagato or sometimes she addressed him as Pain.

As he placed her things down on his table he removed his mask and headband, informing Pakkun, Bull, Shiba, and Biscuit that he would be leaving for a C-rank would be back by hopefully the end of the month and they should inform the others he was leaving. Pakkun then asked, "Um Kakashi. If you're going on a mission, is Naru going with you?"

"Yup." There was a glint in his ninkens eyes as he asked and Kakashi was a bit frightened to ask what it was but in the end, he did ask.

He instantly regretted it when Shiba replied, "Well, you're going to be together. In the woods. Out of Konoha. She will have to bathe, in a river most likely and she will need someone to watch her back as she does so." he wiggled his brows suggestively and if Kakashi didn't read porn all day he would have turned red of what they were suggesting.

"She is a preteen. I will not be leering or touching her. End of discussion." With that, he made his way to his bedroom only to see Naruto had grabbed his pillow and was hugging it.

He remembered she wanted one of his shirts and knew if he didn't give her one, she was liable to take all of them. He went into his wardrobe and took two out, placing one in her clothes scroll and another next to the bag, she could decide whether to take it on the mission or leave it in Konoha in her apartment.

He sat on the bed on the floor with some scrolls in front of him as he guarded the girl resting peacefully on his bed.

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Two hours later she woke up with a yawn, causing him to stand upright as she rubbed her eyes, to get rid of the remains of sleep. "Hmm, what time is it?"

He gave a small smile behind which she caught and returned, "There's still one hour left till we need to leave. If you want to sleep you can, I've already bought your things over." She gestured for him to sit on the bed so he did, so she proceeded to point to her lap so he sighed and placed his head there, allowing his eyes to close momentarily as she had started to run her fingers through his hair and across his scalp.

"This mission I chose it because we went on it last time." He paid vague attention to what she was saying, her hands felt amazing on his head, "It is actually an A-rank with Zabuza attacking." This caused Kakashi to stiffen so she continued, "They were being paid to attack us by a man called Gato. He doesn't want the bridge to be built because then the people of Nami will have money, which he doesn't want. Last time, we encountered him on the wave. Well first we met the demon brothers but they were taken care of easily, but one of their weapons was laced with poison and I got hit, but I managed to bleed out the poison. After we met Zabuza you used your Sharingan and another person pretending to be a member of Mists ANBU came and hit him with a senbon and left with him.

"He was working with Zabuza and was called Haku. He had an ice bloodline and I'm not going in order."

She let out an exasperated sigh, so Kakashi turned so he was on his back looking up to the blonde and reached his hand to stroke her hair out of her face, "Did anyone get hurt?"

"Sasuke. The second time we met them, I got hurt but Sasuke was worse off he jumped in front of me as an attack came inside the ice mirror thingy. He was hurt by a lot of senbon and both he and I thought he was dead till you pointed it out. You drained yourself a lot due to using your Sharingan a lot Sakura and Tazuna went unscathed." She melted into his touch as he stroked around each feature of her face and neck.

She suddenly stopped his hand when he reached the center of her right shoulder, "This was where your mark was. It had the katakana for wolf and was surrounded by nine tails and some lightning. It made its way down my shoulder and to my neck."

She let go of his hand so he spoke, "So, we get attacked by the demon of the mist-."

"Yeah about that. Why call him the demon of the mist when that was- is Yagura, the fourth Mizukage?"

"Hmm because he killed over a hundred of his academy classmate?"

Huffing she continued to pet his hair, "Well, the tailed beasts all take offense. And besides, it's not like Yagura wanted to be evil. That was all Ob- Never mind."

He softened his gaze, "You don't have to act as if I'll go mad if you mention him."

She flinched and her hand stilled in his hair, "No, you won't go mad, you might go furious though." He sat up at that with an expression that told her to elaborate, "After the war, Obito was a sore spot of sorts. So once I was talking to Pakkun about him and you just lost it. You started to yell in his defense. We got into an argument and I just left the apartment, Granny sent me out for a mission only an hour after and it went south. We were delayed for over a month and we couldn't send word so when we got back. I avoided you till you broke into my apartment. You hadn't been sleeping properly and well you can imagine what happened next."

Kakashi was internally going through a long list of curses in various different languages towards himself. The look in Naruto's eyes was a pain, the pain he caused. Whenever Naruto spoke of future him it usually pertained them having some form of an argument and splitting up until he manned up and asked her to forgive him. It made him sick just to think about it.

He grabbed her pulled her into his arms, "I'm so, so, so sorry I promise I won't be nearly as much of a jackass as future me seemed to be."

This caused her to laugh, "You weren't a jackass, Kakashi. Sure you had your times when you were a tool but otherwise, you were a complete sweetheart."

He rubbed her back and spoke, "Whenever you talk about future me it's always to do with us fighting, even that vision showed me that we had a fight about you prying into my past."

"I knew what I was getting into when we started our relationship back then so I even when we argued and had a fight I never went to anyone. Although Kiba and Shikamaru often got on your case when I got upset. It was funny to see you after having been smacked some sense into."

They sat in silence for a few minutes, till Pakkun and the other three entered, "Well as much as I would love little Hatake's with blue eyes everywhere, preferably the old compound, you need to get going for your mission in a half hour. I assume you will want to go to the memorial stone as usual Kakashi?"

At the comment, Kakashi turned pink and Naruto laughed, getting off of his and said, "We were talking Pakkun. Not getting hot and sweaty in the sheets."

"Of course not, you don't have to be in the sheets to get all hot and heavy now do you Naru?"

"Touché. The kitchen and shower are wonderful places as well as the Hokage office."

They both turned to see Kakashi the same shade as Gaara's hair. "Oh which reminds me! I'll be heading off to Sunagakure when we get back from this mission to go deal with some business there, you and the others wanna join?"

Instead of replying straight away Kakashi turned and spilled a water bottle on his face, letting it fall down his clothed chest, Naruto watched as his already tight clothing clung to him even more and unconsciously licked her lips.

"One, please don't make such crude comments and two, I don't see why we can't go there. I will have to get permission and do some paperwork-."

"I'll sort out filling them in, you just bring them, sign them when I'm done and hand them to the Hokage. I need to sort out Gaara's seal before he gets to the village. And have a word with him and his siblings."

He nodded as they both got ready and left for the memorial stone before going to meet up with the rest of their team.


	11. Chapter 11

**This has been beta'd by Ankaa Sage! Thank-you so much!**

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Sasuke, Sakura, and Tazuna stood at Konoha's gate and they waited for their sensei and last teammate, and as soon as the three hours hit there was a very familiar poof sound signalling Kakashi arrived. He looked and them and asked, "Where's Naruto?"

Sakura looked confused, as did the other two, "What do you mean sensei? You took him with you earlier remember?" the two males behind her nodded, they too had seen the silver-haired jounin take away the blonde teammate.

"I did but over a half hour ago she went somewhere I'm not sure where. Anyone have any ideas?"

Team 7 looked at each other, Sakura still didn't know much about her so Sasuke spoke, "We should try Naka River. Since we're leaving the village he would want to pay his respects before leaving for so long. He tends to forget about time when he's there."

Kakashi nodded as Sakura looked confused, "Tazuna. Would you mind if we all went to collect him?"

He waved his hand, "Lead the way!" he slurred.

As the three of them walked to Naka River Tazuna questioned the importance of the place, Sakura asked where it was and when she realized it was in the near the Uchiha compound, questioned why he was there.

Sasuke gave very brief and vague answers to them and stopped when they saw Naruto sitting against the tree at the edge of Naka River.

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Naruto sat leaning against the tree where Shisui had jumped all those years ago.

She recalled a time when she and Shisui made some food and sat for a picnic on their own, they had asked Sasuke and Itachi but both were busy as the elder promised to train his brother.

 _"Shisui! Look, look!" said a little Naruto as she pointed to some koi fish in the lake in his back garden._

 _She was wearing a dress Shisui had bought her and asked her only to wear it around his clan. The dress was light orange with black flowers on the puffy skirt which was rimmed with black lace. Whereas Shisui wore his usual black attire that had the Uchiha fan on it, however the blonde insisted he wear the necklace she had crafted for him._

 _It was a simple circle that had the Uzumaki swirl on it which she had painted orange that she had crafted from some wood. She bought a sturdy chain and gave it to him on his 15th birthday, much to his delight._

 _"Hmm… which one of these is your favorite, hime?" he asked as he sat, his legs stretched behind her and himself by her side, arms bracing him from behind._

 _She thought hard about which one it was so he gently combed his fingers through her hair, which was up to mid back when she wasn't in her henge. "That one!" she said as she pointed to a black and white koi fish._

 _"And why is your favorite?" he asked as she moved towards him slightly._

 _"Because it looks like you. It has a funny tail, kinda spikey. Like our hair!" she gave him a large radiant smile which caused him to smile as well._

 _"Well, how about for your next birthday, you have that koi fish? You've taken great care of the plant we sewed together last year and a fish is no different."_

 _Her smile dimmed slightly causing the Uchiha to sit to and grasp the back of her neck, concern on his face, "The orphanage will never let me have a pet Shisui. Madam doesn't like them." She replied gloomily._

 _"Hmm… well you'll simply have to move out. There's plenty of room here. You're more than welcome to move in with me, hime." He didn't wait for her reply, instead hoisted her on his back as he made their way back to the picnic blanket that was under the cherry blossom tree. When he reached there, he sat down with his legs stretched, Naruto sitting on his thighs. "What do you wanna eat first?"_

 _Before Naruto was some chicken teriyaki, Temari sushi, yaki udon, omelet crepe, and some dango._

 _They had decided beforehand that they wouldn't make ramen, that was a daily necessity for Naruto and the picnic was meant to be special, they would get ramen for dinner later._

 _She took her time deciding, "Can I have chicken teriyaki with an omelet, please."_

 _He chuckled at the manners, "No need to be shy, and of course." He got a plate for her and put a large amount of each, knowing she wouldn't ask for seconds even if she was hungry._

 _Not long after they had both finished their portions of food and Shisui packed the food in boxes, leaving a small portion for him to eat later and larger ones for Naruto to take with her._

Sakura ran up to her yelling for her not to get away from the edge, where Kakashi shunshined to her and gripped her forearm.

She looked up bleary-eyed as she saw all her team minus Sasuke looked startled, "Um what are you guys doing here?"

"Wh-What are we doing here?! Naruto, even if the villagers are mean you don't have to jump into a river!" yelled Sakura as she looked frightened for the blonde.

"Who's jumping into the river? I was paying my respects to my fiancé who jumped into the river a few days before the massacre." She replied slowly, as if she thought the girl insane slightly, which she kind of was with her split personality.

This reply, however, caused Sakura, Kakashi and Tazuna to blink a few times before all releasing breaths, holding onto their chests where their hearts lay, "Maa, don't scare us like that." Kakashi said as he ruffled her hair causing her to smack it away and glare with a small pout on her lips. "You were late for meeting up with us at the gate so Sasuke suggested you were here. When we saw you near the edge, we assumed the worst." Kakashi gave her a completely fake eye smile which in turn gained an irritated look from the usually joyful teammate.

After gathering her things, Team 7 and Tazuna headed out for Nami, waving goodbye to Izumo and Kotetsu who were _cooing_ at the fact it was the genins first time out of the village, which in turn caused Sasuke and Sakura to look at Naruto who gestured for them not to say anything. Their cooing, however, caused Naruto to hit them with a small and harmless water jutsu and walk out the gates huffing and mumbling about gate guards.

As they left Sakura gave in to her curiosity, "So Naruto why do the gate guards think it's your first time out of the village? We know you've been to the valley of end and that's outside the village."

Pausing for a moment, Naruto contemplated how to answer her question before replying, "I teleport there and back, so I don't have to go through the gates either. I do leave a note with sensei saying I've left but that's it really."

Nodding her head, Sakura gave Naruto a small smile and asked Kakashi, "Sensei, where is Nami?"

"Hmm, its east of Konoha, past a river so we have to get a boat to get there, right Tazuna?"

Before he could reply Naruto spoke up, "Oh look, a puddle. Isn't nice to see a puddle on the road, especially if it's not rained for a week?" She then proceeded to splash in said puddle causing the person under it to groan.

Her action and statement arose some questions but for Kakashi, it meant he had to be on high alert.

"If it's not rained in a week, how is there a puddle?" asked Tazuna.

Simultaneously Sasuke asked, "Naruto you okay? Why are you jumping in a puddle?"

She grinned at Sasuke and said to Tazuna as she stopped jumping in the puddle, "Oh, well it could be ninjutsu. I hear the demon brothers use puddles and then rise from them to attack unsuspecting passer byes or targets. But we shouldn't have to worry about the two now would we?"

Tazuna became anxious at her statement whereas the preteens became even more confused but didn't get a chance to voice their questions as Kakashi was hit by chains and poofed, yet everyone besides Naruto thought he had been killed.

Sakura let out a scream before Naruto told her to guard Tazuna as she and Sasuke handle the demon brothers. Sasuke attacked with kunai as did Naruto, however Naruto went up to them and stabbed the one who had poisoned her last time in the back of the neck, an instant kill. She turned to see Sasuke about to be stabbed so she threw a kunai at the other brothers' skull, splattering some blood on Sasuke's shirt.

Once they were dead Kakashi reappeared and congratulated them all on working together to protect Tazuna. And like last time he questioned why he had lied about the rank of the mission, however his reply was different, "At Nami, we are oppressed by a man called Gato of Gato company. He has isolated our land from the other nations so I need to build this bridge so he can't starve of us money."

"Sasuke is the last of his clan and he has no heir. Try another excuse." Said Naruto, team 7 could hear the teasing in her voice but Tazuna did not.

"I have a daughter and grandson that are liable to swear vengeance if I'm hurt."

"Done. One person swore to vengeance is already one too many." Sasuke gave her a glare and a small barely their pout.

The four of them got made their way to Nami and they continued the conversation they were having before the demon brothers interrupted, talking about Nami, how it was a rich country when Uzushigakure and her people were still alive.

Once they made it to Nami Naruto noted the massive difference the bridge had done for them. It looked like a poor and deprived, just as she remembered it had so many years ago.

It was uneventful journey till Naruto threw a kunai at the white rabbit and out came Zabuza.

"Oh look sensei! It's Zabuza of the seven ninja swordsman of the mist!" said Naruto cheerily gaining looks from the other three, who looked at her as if she were insane.

"Ah, so the Demon of the Mist is here, any reason in particular?"

"You know, I still don't get why he's called a demon. The Mists jinchuriki is Yagura, the Mizukage. I know for a fact Isobu, the sanbi, was not consulted when Zabuza was named the demon. I mean, I don't see claws, evil chakra or tails. Tails are important for you to be a demon, dattebayo."

Once again everyone, including Zabuza and a hidden Haku, looked at Naruto as if she had nine heads and was insane.

"You dare mention that bastards name in front of me?!" yelled Zabuza.

Shrugging she continued, "You're the one that planned the coup. Only you can be blamed for being hunted." She said in a sing-song voice, pissing Zabuza off more.

There was a long pause as everyone waited for Zabuza to calm down when no one attacked Naruto shrugged her shoulders and hit Zabuza with the Chidori senbon making him fall right off his sword, face first into the ground. She then proceeded to hit Haku with it as well, and he also fell down, however more gracefully than the older male.

Zabuza got up and jumped up to get his executioners blade, swinging it at Kakashi and the two of them fought whilst Haku attacked the others, or would have had it not been for Naruto's incredible speed to which she used to chomp him at the back of his neck, causing him to pass out.

Naruto turned around to see Kakashi had opened his Sharingan eye, much to Sasuke's internal outrage, "How does he have the Sharingan?!"

"What is a Sharingan?" asked Tazuna.

"The kekkei genkai, or bloodline limit, that belongs to the Uchiha clan. A doujutsu that allows them to easily cast a genjutsu and copy any jutsu their sharingan eyes can see. It can only be activated if one goes through an emotional distress. Kakashi sensei has one such eye he was given it as a gift during the last war. That is all I'm going to say." She gave Sasuke a pointed look to not give the man the third degree and he gave a nod to her in acknowledgement.

Zabuza looked and saw that Haku was down so he got a water clone to collect him when no one was looking and they fled, but not before saying that they hadn't seen the last of the two of them. (Cliché right?)

They made it back to Tazunas house where his daughter Tsunami answered, and hugged her father, happy he had made it back safely with help. She then ushered in the others and showed them their rooms, and not long later, dinner was prepared.

Inari joined them half way through dinner and made the same speech he had the last time Naruto had come, and so she replied in a similar fashion as she had last time. When Inari left the room, Tazuna and Tsunami apologised for the boy ad explained why he thought what he did. Sakura left once she had heard the story, much to everyone's confusion.

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Sakura walked up to where she thought the boy had run off to and saw he was crying. Softly she approached the boy but did announce her presence. "Inari your mum and grandpa explained to us what happened. Please don't be upset with Naruto he hasn't had the best life himself. He was orphaned the night he was born and something happened that made everyone hate him. Even I hated him till recently, He's kind, brave and loyal. I wish I hadn't been so mean to him and just taken the time to get to know him."

"Why do you do it? Why be a ninja if you're just going to die?"

She gave him a small smile and replied, "Everyone dies one day, why not die having done something good? Do you want to do for no good reason? After living an average life and making no difference? To be easily forgotten?"

"N-no… I guess not…"

"Then please, don't judge people just because you don't understand them. Naruto feels the need to prove himself to our people, so why don't we help do that, eh?" Inari nodded vigorously and the two of them made their way back inside to finish dinner only to see dinner had been put away.

Shrugging, Inari gave a brief apology to the blonde to which she smiled at and gave him a tummy tickle, telling him he ought to go to bed.

Team 7 sat in the boy's room as they discussed what they would do next, "Okay, you all know how to tree walk, and are halfway through water walking. However, by two days' time I want that perfected. As it stands, Naruto is closest to having it mastered, despite the fact the two of you have less chakra than he does. We will do that where Tazuna is building the bridge since it will be easier to protect him that way.

"Once you have finished water walking, we will work on increasing your speed, though Naruto's speed is already past my level so we will work on that jutsu I have been teaching you. Sasuke, once your speed is correct, I will also be teaching you this jutsu. Sakura, I would teach you it also, if it did not require too much chakra that you don't currently have, so we will work on increasing those reserves and since you're good at chakra control, we will work on a few jutsu's to better defend yourself and some medical ninjutsu. Do any of you not like the plan?" when he received three no's he dismissed Sakura to go sleep and eyed Naruto wearily once she had left.

"Right boys. I'm gonna place a locking seal on the door and window so no one can get in and I'm gonna change back, kay?" though posed as a question, it was said in the form of a statement so they simply nodded, looking away as she got changed in what Kakashi knew was his shirt and some baggy trousers, much to Sasuke's confusion.


	12. chapter 12

**This has been beta'd by Ankaa Sage! Thank-you so much!**

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"What do you mean they got away?!" yelled a small, fat, hairy, corporate boss that went by the name Gato. "I'm paying you to make sure that bridge doesn't get built! All you have to do is kill Tazuna! How hard can it be?!"

Gato and his lackeys, as well as Zabuza and Haku, were all in a dark well-furnished room in one of his homes he kept out of people's eye. "Tch. It's harder than it looks when the man's got Kakashi Hatake, the copy ninja on his side and a team whose powers we don't know yet."

"Don't argue with me! You two are just tools, so do as you're supposed to do! I don't care how you do it, just get it done!" The two of them left the room, however unknown to them, someone had snuck into the room they were previously occupying.

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Kakashi woke up feeling very warm. A lot warmer than he remembered being when he had gone to sleep. He was also holding onto something. Another thing he noticed, he had two pillows. Deciding to open his eyes and see what he was sleeping on made him regret it instantaneously. In his sleep, he seemed to have rolled over, several times and latched onto the closest heat near him.

Naruto.

He head was rested between her breasts. Slowly he tried to release his grip on her and move before she woke up, however, he had not noticed that Naruto also had a tight grip on him, so he tried to wiggle out from her hold only for her to groan and roll them onto their sides, Kakashi still firmly in place. His blood ran cold, however, when he heard an ice cold voice, "Kakashi how long do you intend to molest her? You know I can kill you for this right?" moving his head slightly he saw Sasuke glaring kunai at him.

"I am not molesting her I woke up like this and can't get out of her hold."

Sasuke's eye twitched before he replied, "Then kawarimi out of her hold than." His voice laced so much venom Kakashi was surprised he wasn't stung by it.

He blinked feeling the need to smack himself for not thinking of that himself and replaced himself with his pillow. He breathed out a large breath he hadn't known he was holding, till Naruto squirmed and mumbled, "It's rude to leave a ladies bed before she's gotten up dattebayo." She sat up rubbing her eyes before she gave both boys small glares.

"Why you glaring at me for?" asked Sasuke. He must have been out of it since his sentence was said wrong.

She groaned again, this time clutching her stomach, "My stomach hurts." She then flopped onto her stomach with her arms crossed against them.

Sighing Sasuke shook his head, "I don't know how Shisui did it for so long."

There was a sudden spike of KI radiating from the blonde who gave a sideways glance at the Uchiha so Kakashi could not see her expression, but if Sasuke's face was anything to go by, he wasn't missing anything fun. "Kakashi-sensei, I need to go somewhere after breakfast and then I'll be right back. Is that okay?" she asked, finally not glaring at Sasuke who took the opportunity to make a tactical retreat.

"Of course do I get to know where you're going?" he asked as he went to change his shirt, back towards his student.

Said student gave a wolf whistle at the sight, "Well if you just take off a few more clothes I'd be more than willing to stay and deal with my stuff later."

He turned his face round to give her a blank look, so she huffed and said, "I'm not leaving Nami and will only be a few miles away from here if that." She got up to her feet, one hand clutching her stomach.

"Naruto are you alright? Your stomach seems to be bothering you." He turned around, thinking she had already changed her shirt but had instead chosen to bind her chest. He thanked the shodaime that she had covered part of said area.

"Yeah just stomach cramps I think I might get my period even quicker than the furball said I would," she replied, not fazed by Kakashi's unintentional gawking.

"Um, why are you binding your chest you don't usually do that?" he asked as he tried to focus on something other than the _under-aged_ girl in front of him.

"I can start my period anytime now, last time when I got it and I was in my male form things got messy. I was out with ero-sennin looked for grandma Tsunade and started bleeding in places you don't wanna know."

Kakashi blanched and tried his very hardest to not conjure that image in his mind. Naruto, as if reading his mind, which she could have, threw his Icha Icha book at him to a certain page and decided to torment him a little, "I can actually do that. It's not really hard to do when you have ninja flexibility." She said, which in turn made Kakashi red.

Finally having finished with binding her chest, Naruto put on her jumper and placed a henge on her to make her hair shorter and left the room, headband in her hand. Kakashi, once he was fully dressed, also made his way downstairs and sat across her and next to Tazuna.

Breakfast was simple, rice, curry, onigiri, omelet, salad, some of that being leftovers from the previous night's dinner. They discussed simple tips on how to walk on water, much to Inari and Tsunami's confusion, not understanding how they could do that, Inari commenting on how cool it was and other praising comments. Naruto left shortly after breakfast, leaving Kakashi to answer questions he didn't have answers to.

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Naruto reached her destination with little trouble. All she had to do was feel for two particular chakra signatures and viola, she was there. She waited for those two particular people to leave the room before she hiraishined into the room, quickly placing a silencing seal and barrier around the room. She made quick work of the samurai guarding the fat man in the room and threw them out the window. They were only on the second floor, after all. She stared at Gato before taking a seat on one of the sofas in the room. "Well, Gato. I have a request to make."

He showed no outward fear however she could smell his sweat and fear, it came from him in rolls. Slowly he sat across her, "And what would that be, kid?"

"Simple, sign these little scrolls here, here, and here," she said pointing to where on the three scrolls she took out of her back pocket, "And I may just let you live." She added with a smirk.

He scoffed and rolled his eyes, "And what could a mere child such as yourself do?" he sneered.

"Oh, many, many things. The first thing that comes to mind is knocking you unconscious, dress you in girl clothes and show a picture to all your benefactors. Another idea would be to hang you by your toes as I hit you with rusty senbon needles all over your body. Another option would be to simply-." She released an intense amount of KI at the man.

She made her eyes change red, fangs grow longer, nails turned into claws, whisker marks thicker and Kurama's evil charka swirl around her. He was on his knees faster than you could say Hokage, begging for her to not kill him or do any of the things she had listed.

She dropped the KI and thrust the scrolls to him and he signed them and stamped them. She nodded and decided she had had enough of seeing him alive and breathing. She threw him out the window, killing him on impact.

Once that was done she made her way to Gato Company and showed them the documents he had signed. They agreed, not caring as long as everything ran smoothly, however, were reluctant about her age till she showed them her ninja registration, which made her old enough. Once all was dealt with, she made her merry way back to Team 7, on her way she remembered she had not left a note for Zabuza and Haku so quickly doing so she left them on a few doors and left.

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Sasuke and Sakura had been trying and failing to walk on water, much to Kakashi and Tazuna's amusement. They were interrupted when Naruto Uzumaki shunshined into the water. Without falling. She looked around, confused before her eyes landed on her two drenched teammates and she burst out laughing. It had been some weeks since he heard her laugh quite like that and was about to smile but stopped himself when he remembered where they were and what their situation was. "Dobe. How did you- when did you master water walking?"

"Oh, uh a few days ago?" her answer sounded more like a question than a reply causing Kakashi's sweatdrop and Sasuke's eye twitch.

"And you didn't feel the need to tell us because?"

"I uh forgot?" she said with a nervous chuckle, hand scratching the back of her head.

Instead of losing his temper in a foreign country, Sasuke took deep breaths, many of the first ones coming out shaky as he held back his annoyance and fury at his blonde teammate. "Uh, Naruto? Do you have any tips on how to do this? I and Sasuke keep falling in after a few steps." Asked a shy Sakura, causing Kakashi's and Sasuke's eyebrows to rise.

"Well, you need to make the flow of water constant and make it stay. When you take a few steps, you walk into the part that moves, see? So instead of letting your chakra go with the river, make it stay at your feet and keep the supply constant." She made gestures pointing to the river, her feet and made her chakra visible for them. They both gave it another try, getting further than they had before till they fell over into the water, Naruto giving them prompts about what they were doing wrong and how to fix that.

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Kakashi was watching Naruto teach his team how to water walk and was interrupted by Tazuna, "You know he's not what I'd expected when I saw him on your back the other day." Kakashi merely nodded so he continued, "I notice how you don't-." he was interrupted by the appearance of the two ninjas that had attacked them the previous day.

Kakashi called up his team and got into a protective stance but was interrupted by Naruto, "How's it goin' guys? I see you got my note?"

Zabuza scoffed, "How could we not? You left one on every door in that place."

"True, true. Anyway as promised in the notes." She threw a scroll at them which Zabuza opened, closed and tucked away in his back bag. "Well, now that that's sorted. Why don't you help with the bridge whilst I explain to everyone what's going on?" they nodded and started to help build the bridge, rather awkwardly.

All eyes that had traveled with her were on her in a second, "Okay so I went and followed those twos chakra signatures to their secret hideout, waited for them to leave, threatened Gato and he signed these scrolls. One to pay off all money he owed them, the second to give money to help build the bridge as well as releasing his hold on Nami, the third leaving the company in my very capable hands. That's about it. Oh right, Gato and his lackeys are all dead."

Everyone, including Sasuke and Kakashi's, jaws fell and their eyes wide as they stared at the blonde. Kakashi was the first one to regain his composure and said, "Naruto, Well done? In any event, from today feel free to call yourself Konoha's number one unpredictable hyperactive ninja." She gave a large radiant smile to the silver-haired jounin and nodded her head vigorously.

 _ **"I may die simply because I can't predict you, Naruto."**_

 _"Oh, stop being a drama queen, koi. I'm not that bad."_

 **"Yes, you are. In fact, you are worse."** Said Kurama.

 _"Shut it fur-ball! Go back to sleep."_

 **"No thank-you. I think I'll annoy you a bit longer."**

Kakashi tuned out the rest of the conversation, knowing they could argue for hours with little to no care on what's going on around them. Sighing he turned and asked for everyone to carry on as they were, Sasuke and Sakura glancing questioning looks towards their blonde teammate but did as they were told.

After a minute Naruto came out of her mind scape and went to Kakashi for help in the Chidori. She could do it perfectly fine but they had to keep up appearances, but she was stuck on keeping an eye on her surroundings and use the Chidori. It was something Kakashi himself had struggled with till he received his Sharingan eye from Obito.

It took a week to finish the building of the bridge with all the extra help from Naruto's shadow clones as well as Zabuza and Haku. The day it was finished Kakashi asked what they would do and they asked if it was possible for them to join Konoha, to which he said was not up to him to decide but would most likely be a yes when they asked the Hokage.

As they left Tazuna said he would name the bridge The Great Naruto Bridge, much to everyone's amusement and Naruto's joy. The journey back to Konoha was a lot quicker, as they decided to run back on the water and tree jump after. Sasuke and Sakura had mastered water walking and were in the middle of having their speed worked on by having weights placed on them.

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Sasuke was annoyed and pissed. He wasn't sure how a person could be both, but he managed. The source of these emotions was easy to pinpoint. Naruto and Kakashi.

The both of them had been acting weird ever since their first meeting, however, it seemed as if they both knew each other from before. Even now, they acted as if they were close. It was something he didn't like to see. The look Naruto would give their sensei was a look he had once believed was reserved for Shisui and the main Uchiha family.

Yet he would often see Naruto look at their sensei in this way and it hurt him to see her move on from the people that had loved her so much. Team 7 were currently in training ground 26 which was at the back of the Hokage monument, Sasuke and Sakura working on their speed and Naruto working on what he believed was the Chidori, a move made by Kakashi when he was their age. An A-rank move with the possibilities of becoming S-rank.

However due to his frustrations, his speed increased without him noticing and he fell over, the foot having gotten caught in a root, leading to a twisted ankle. He cried out, much to his embarrassment, and clutched his ankle as Naruto appeared in a flash of yellow, eyes concerned as her eyes turned yellow with a thick line going through each eye.

She went on her knees and raised her right hand which was glowing orange as she wrapped her hand around his ankle making him wince as she closed her eyes and when she opened them she released his ankle and fell backwards, slightly out of breath as a layer of sweat appeared. "Better?" she asked as she tried to get up only to lose her balance and fall backwards.

Well, she would have if Kakashi hadn't chosen that moment to appear and catch her, one arm around her midsection the other by his side. "Um, yeah," Sasuke replied as he moved his ankle round. He was even more confused now since he didn't know she could do medical ninjutsu.

"Are you two okay? Well, I see Sasuke's ankle is better, but why are you so faint Naruto?" she gave him a look in return and as if he had read her mind, which he had thought several times for the past few weeks, his ear tip turned red and cleared his throat, "Right um Naruto why don't you uh go and check-up of Biscuit and the others, I'll take care of things here." she nodded reluctantly and gave a long stretch before going off to whatever biscuit was.

"Um, Kakashi-senesi where did Naruto go?" asked Sakura as sat next to Sasuke, who didn't mind, over the past few weeks she was being an actual member of team 7 making her more tolerable, especially since she stopped fangirling whenever she saw him.

"Oh, he isn't well so I told him to go check up on something. In fact, why don't we call it a day? We can meet up again tomorrow, same time, at the bridge." When he received two nods he smiled and poofed to where Sasuke assumed was his home.

"Sakura, have you noticed anything strange with Kakashi and Naruto?" he asked as they made their way to Sakuras house. It was late and it was only chivalrous to do so.

"Uh well to me sensei is always strange but with Naruto, he seems so different of late, especially these last few days why do you ask?"

"Naruto, since I'm the last Uchiha in Konoha has always come to me to say things which I usually tend to ignore but he knows I'm listening but since becoming genin he hasn't-"

Sakura gave a contemplative nod, "Perhaps he doesn't want to overload you now since we have missions and training it does make us all tired. Maybe if we had some days off he may just come over and talk your ears off. Just give him a little more time if it doesn't change then confront him at home."He gave a nod and waved her goodbye as she entered her house, making his way back to his apartment, Sakuras words fresh in his mind.


	13. Chapter 13

**This has been beta'd by Ankaa Sage! Thank-you so much!**

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Kakashi arrived in his apartment with a distinct poof sound resonating where he arrived, yet no one paid any mind to that as Naruto laid face down on his sofa with his dogs surrounding her. Pakkun was the first to say anything as he quickly turned around, "Kakashi! Welcome back! Naruto seems to be in quite some pain and I can smell a lot of blood. Did she get injured during training?"

He shook his head and sat on the coffee table, placing a hand to her lower back, pressing, trying to alleviate some of her back pain. "Naruto? Are you sure you're okay?" he asked, yet he didn't stop his some-what massage.

He received a light groan from the blonde who turned her head to look at him, "I'm fine. Periods never really agree with women. It seems I don't have the same pain tolerance I had before." She closed her eyes and let him continue. He was also sure he could hear a faint purring sound from the girl but chose not to comment on it yet.

"And there's nothing any of us can do?" he asked as he started to press harder which caused her to purr slightly louder.

She let out a faint moan before replying, "Well what you're doing right now is definitely helping. You have no idea how much my back kills having to carry my bound chest all day, 'tebayao."

They fell silent after that, Kakashi's dogs getting back to what they usually do as he massaged the girls back. After ten minutes Naruto had fallen asleep and the bell to the apartment rang, causing her to groan, but was not enough to wake her in the village. Feeling the chakra signature to be Sasuke's, Kakashi got up and made his way to answer the door, praying to the shodaime that Sasuke wouldn't want to come in. "Ah, Sasuke. Can I help you with something?" he asked as Sasuke stood on his doorstep, giving his sensei the stink eye.

"Can we uh, go inside?" he asked as he looked around. What he was looking to avoid was unknown to Kakashi (A/N and quite frankly me as well.) Awkwardly the two of them made their way inside as Kakashi gave a mental prayer for Naruto to not be there.

Lady luck was not on his side today as Naruto was still in the same position as when he had gotten up to get the door. As Sasuke saw her he visibly blanched. Kakashi realized that Sasuke showed the most emotion when it came to him and Naruto together.

Before Sasuke could speak up, however, Naruto spoke, her voice muffled by the cushion she was on, "Can you go back to massaging me, please? Till I go back to sleep? My back is killing me."

To Sasuke's surprise, Kakashi went over and sat on the coffee table resuming his massaging her back before gesturing for Sasuke to sit down in the armchair he had recently purchased. "So Sasuke, what did you come here for?" asked Kakashi in a hushed voice. Not wanting to disturb the girl who was trying to fall back asleep.

"I wanted to find a way to gain the Sharingan. I'm one of the last of my clan and I don't have its Kekkei Genkai."

Naruto raised her head at that moment and looked at Sasuke, "You really want it? No matter the price? Or what it is that has to be done?" he slowly nodded in reply, mentally wondering why she would ask that question before she sighed, closing her eyes and when she opened them again a kunai went through Kakashi's heart.

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Naruto watched as Sasuke's eyes rolled to the back of his head, head lolling to the side as his body followed suit. "Huh. Not even he could handle it. Pretty sure when senpai used the Tsukuyomi on him as a kid he didn't faint."

"What?" asked Kakashi, it was then that she realized he had stopped massaging her back and sighed as she slowly got up from laying on the sofa.

She stretched her back as she replied, "Itachi used a genjutsu on Sasuke for him to believe he killed his clan in cold blood. He repeated that for a three-day span. The genjutsu is from the mangekyo sharingan. Kotoamatsukami and Tsukuyomi are genjutsus of the highest level, the one Shisui used to possess being the more powerful of the two. Anyway, the three days happen in one second, in reality, usually causing the person to collapse or faint from what the person shows them. Of course, both of those genjutsus can be altered to have less time but it takes some concentration and practice. With the Tsukuyomi, Sasuke didn't faint despite having watched his clan be murdered over and over again, but this time, he did. I'm curious as to why. All he saw was the two of us die by Itachi's hand and- that actually makes sense now. I went a little over-board. Whoops." She shrugged her shoulders as if it was a normal thing. For her it was.

"Um, I'm not sure I follow. Why did you make him see that?"

"Simple." She said as she got up and made her way to the kitchen, starting to make some hot chocolate, "To unlock the Sharingan one must first go through a trauma." She raised her hand to stop Kakashi from speaking, "Now I know the massacre happened, and yes it was indeed a trauma. It did unlock his Sharingan but he didn't know it. The trauma I put him through was a little bit like the one, he faced in our original timeline except he unlocked his Sharingan during battle, so basically nothing was the same. Never mind-"

"Naruto you're not making any sense and you're rambling." Interrupted Kakashi as he perched her on the counter, he himself leaning next to the sink a few meters away.

"Basically when he wakes up he'll have full use of the Sharingan."

Kakashi nodded and mentally wondered why she hadn't simply said so in the first place, "A while back you wanted to go to Sunagakure. I got Team 7 a mission slash vacation there for 9 days. It takes a few days to get there and back to the time we'll actually have there are 3-5 days depending on our speed."

Naruto nodded slowly a few times as she took a couple sips of her hot chocolate. It was enough time for her to convince the Kazekage to allow her to fix Gaara's seal and hopefully stop the invasion. Before and after the Wave mission she had two clones go to Sunagakure and speak to the Kazekage as well as Gaara and she believed one small push was all that was needed to convince them both. And what was a better push than Kakashi Hatake who was a lot better at words than she was, in her own opinion?

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As all that happened Zabuza Momochi sat inside the Hokage office across the Sandaime. He had asked for a favor. "You do not wish to be a ninja of the village?" asked Sarutobi as he took a puff of his smoke.

"You are aware of my past, truthfully the only reason I agreed to join this village was to give Haku a better life. How you file me in your records is up to you, but I will still wear my slashed headband. If you have any S rank or high A rank missions you want me to do I will do them as you have allowed the boy and I to live here. But I do not wish to stay living here every single day. In fact, I could do something like your spymaster Jiraiya."

He allowed time for what the missing-nin said to sink in as he thought of what the best option was. After a minute of contemplating he finally spoke up, "I want you to study up on each of the villages and laws. Once you know enough I will nominate you as Konoha's ambassador, which is of course if you pass your probation. For the last month, I have been receiving mail from the Kazekage and Mizukage. They wish to have a full alliance with better provisions for each village. I wish to accept their offers as each village will be giving the same sort of thing. For example information on jutsu or different ways of growing food. As a missing-nin, you know a lot about the land of the five nations and a lot of its people, more specifically how the poorer lives. With that sort of information, every village can improve a lot.

"You will be in the village for as long as it takes for you to learn everything and once you have, you may go to either one of the two villages that I mentioned before. You only have to report to me here in the village once every two months but you need to send word often about what the negotiations entail. Are we in agreement?" when he received a tentative nod from the man across him he gestured for him to leave and mumbled about having more paperwork.

As Sasuke woke up he could feel a dull ache behind his eyes and tried not to think about it. Slowly he opened his eyes and immediately regretted it. Wherever he was, the curtains were open and sunlight went straight to his eyes. The ache became worse and he could feel a churning in his stomach and suddenly there was a small bin on his lap. He made a mental note to thank whoever gave it to him as he emptied his stomach content that next moment.

He could feel a hand move his bangs out of his face as another rubbed his back up and down. After what felt like five minutes he stopped and started to inhale as a female voice spoke, "Okay so I may have gone just a teeny bit overboard but so what? It still worked in the end, dattebayo!"

"The ends do not always justify the means Naruto. And you know that was mean." Said the male voice. He noticed both those voices belonged to Kakashi and Naruto. Kakashi and Naruto who a few days ago he saw get killed by his psychotic older brother.

Despite the pain he was in, he swirled his head round to look at Naruto who had been rubbing his back and holding his hair back. "You-you're alive. B-but I saw my brother-"

"What you saw was a genjutsu I placed you under. None of what you saw was real. Kakashi and I are alive. Itachi is not in the village. He didn't kill anyone today or yesterday or the day before. So please calm down." She stood up and wrapped her arms around him from behind, bringing his head to lean against the center of her chest.

"Before you ask why Naruto did it. Well, see you wanted the Sharingan but certain events need to take place first so what she made you see, helped you to gain the Sharingan at will." Said Kakashi who was crouched in front of his coffee table.

There were a few minutes of silence as they allowed their statements to finally sink into the Uchiha but when it did, it was almost comical. He stood up hastily and since Naruto was holding him, the two of them fell forwards, Naruto landing on Sasuke's back as he successfully folded his arms under his face to lessen the impact. Sasuke groaned yet Naruto wasn't fazed at all as she got off him and brushed the imaginary dust off her, however, Kakashi looked to be on the verge of giggling but chose instead to help Sasuke off the ground. He looked pointedly at the two of them and said, "Not a word about that to anyone. And I mean anyone." He gave a glare with it yet neither were fazed, far too used to the Uchiha glare to allow it to bother them.

"Anyway, I know you're most likely very excited right now about your Sharingan, but I wouldn't advise using it just yet. You need to be in top condition to use it at first mentally and physically for it could end up making you feel worse. I say, rest up and tomorrow during training, we can work on it, okay?" Asked Kakashi, yet his tone left little room for dispute.

"Um since the two of you are here anyway I wanted to know what's going on between the two of you?" Sasuke asked as Naruto sat down on the sofa.

The two of them stared at each other, Kakashi looked confused where Naruto looked amused. "Well, Kakashi is my teacher like he's your teacher" replied Naruto.

"You know what I mean! You look at him like you did with Shisui and I wanna know why!" Naruto's expression dropped as her right hand went to grasp her necklace. When she saw the look of confused anger in Sasuke's eyes she turned her head to the side, not wanting to see that look on his face.

"Like I said, our relationship is simply student and teacher. Just because I am different with him does not mean we are anything else."

"Stop that crap and tell me the truth!"

"I'm her guard. I am to watch and protect her even at the price of my life." Replied Kakashi. Technically he wasn't lying, he was assigned to watch her by the Hokage, however, the last part was due to the fact future he had mated with Naruto, it was his duty to protect her even if she didn't bare his mark anymore.

Sasuke blinked twice, mouth opening and closing a few times before he finally managed to speak up, "Why? Why would Naruto need to be protected like that?" he looked at the two people in front of him but couldn't decide who to focus on.

"Because of her Uzumaki blood. She got it from one important person but her other parent was even more important. Before she was assigned to me she was being protected by Yug- a member of ANBU black ops, and since I am ex-ANBU I'm all that's needed to keep her safe."

"But why not tell us in the first place? Sakura was thinking, in the beginning, you were playing favorites with Naruto."

"Well… I didn't feel the need to tell anyone about it. It's not important but I see how that could actually be a problem." He replied gaining a slightly dazed look.

"How come?"

"Because if you, Sakura and me were in danger he wouldn't save you the Uchiha heir he would save me even at the cost of both of your lives. That's why Kakashi-sensei has been so fixated on me learning anything and everything. So that a situation like that would never happen." Replied Naruto, she usually carefree eyes cold and hard.

"But if it's his duty, why would that be a problem?" asked Sasuke. He didn't understand, rules had been placed in order yet here the two of them were acting as if Kakashi following the rules was a bad thing. He didn't like the idea of dying, but he felt it wouldn't matter as long as Naruto got to live. He told those feelings to go away, he had a duty to complete and would see it to the end.

"Kakashi lives by his own rule. Those who abandon the mission are trash, but those who abandon their friends or comrades are worse than trash. That is practically his nindo but the role he plays in my life will cause him to abandon it. It's sort of like me making a promise and then being forced to go back on said promise due to some rule. It causes an inner conflict." She stopped there and gave a large sigh as she turned her neck round to get rid of the kink in it. Sasuke allowed what Naruto said to sink in but wasn't given much time as Kakashi spoke up,

"On a completely different note. Sasuke, Team 7 will be going on a vacation slash mission to Sunagakure in three days. I will tell Sakura about it tomorrow. We will be gone for 9 days and roughly six will be spent traveling. The mission itself will be handled by Naruto and myself but I wanted the whole team there. Make sure to pack according to their weather. Since it's the desert, most of the time it's very hot during the day and very cold at night, there is also lots of sand. We will still be training there so don't think it's a fun vacation."

When Sasuke nodded he got up to leave only to see Naruto emerge from a room in a completely different outfit from before. (A/N since I'm no good at descriptions, go to my devianart page and have a look at mission outfit 3 that's what she's wearing just without the armband or trousers, instead she's wearing some shorts, decent sized) It took Sasuke a few moments before what happened caught up with him. He hadn't even seen the girl go into another room yet she had enough time to change into that getup but he didn't get a chance to voice any of his questions as Naruto spoke, "So Sasuke. Staying for food or no?" Any and all questions left his brain as the only thought running through his brain pertained to the various times he ate Naruto's glorious cooking.

So he nodded vigorously, never going back to question why she had clothes at their senseis home or how she vanished and got changed so quickly. She made simple beef stew but whenever Naruto made anything, even some desserts, they tasted heavenly, and everyone who had the girls cooking agreed with him.


	14. Chapter 14

**This has been beta'd by Ankaa Sage! Thank-you so much!**

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The trip to Sunagakure ended up being only three minutes as Naruto used her hirashin to take them all there. What she had planned might take a few days so it was best to use as much time as was available. She teleported the four of them just outside the wall of the village and as they walked in the gate guards asked for identification. Once that had been done they made their way inside.

Sakura looked at her surroundings. It was very different to Konohagakure. Where in Konoha there were a lot of trees, here there was mostly only sand and buildings. However, as she looked she noticed the people looked just as happy as her owns villages people and decided, _No matter the outward appearance, people love their home for the way it is._

They continued to walk and as they did so, many people paused what they were doing and started to whisper. She tried to pay no heed to them, which was very easy since she used to and still does whisper and gossip. Being close friends with Ino Yamanaka has that effect.

She asked the team to stop at a shop, however, because of something that caught her eye. It was a fruit that was pink in color with the shape of a large egg and had what looked like green flame like sticks protruding from it. She was so engrossed that she jumped slightly when she heard a voice behind her, "Ah. That's a dragon fruit. They have a lot of trees here in Suna that grow them. These ones are all hot pink but in Kiri, you get maroon ones and in Kumo they're yellow. This one is white on the inside and has black seeds in it. Sorta like a combo of kiwi and watermelon." Spoke Naruto as he smiled at her. "Can we have five of these please?" he asked and Sakura started to say it wasn't necessary to get any, yet he insisted. (A/N I'm saying he because this is sakuras pov and she thinks Naruto is a boy)

Once Naruto bought them they made their way to wherever Kakashi sensei was taking them, "Um sensei? Where are we going?" she asked when she realized they didn't know.

"Maa… well uh… Naruto?" he said as he scratched the back of his head, a sheepish look on his face.

In return, Naruto sighed and muttered something under his breath that she couldn't hear, "We're going to the Kazekage tower. We have a meeting with him in a short while. You guys don't have to stay during the meeting since it'll be boring with nothing for you to do. But I have to stay."

"Um, Naruto? Why do you have to stay? Can't you join us if we left the meeting that is?" Sakura asked with her head slightly tilted.

Naruto signaled for them to carry on walking as he spoke up, "Well we're here so that I can fix the seal that's on Sunagakures jinchuriki. The host of the one tail; Shukaku. I already have a seal planned but it needs to be approved. That's what this meeting is for."

Sasuke and Sakura both stopped but when they saw their teammates carry one they quickly followed. "Wait. Naruto. Why are they getting you to do a sealing? Hasn't the one tail already got a host?" asked Sasuke.

"Shukaku does have a host. But the lady who did the sealing wasn't a fuinjutsu master and ended up using a faulty seal on him. Causing the Kazekages wife, who was pregnant with the next host, to die shortly after giving birth. That same seal is allowing Shukaku to drive Gaara insane."

"Gaara?" asked Sakura, Sasuke and Kakashi at the same time.

"Look. We're here." They never received their reply as Naruto hastily made his way in the tower and up the stairs, not allowing any time for them to allow it to stay in their heads.

They all stopped at a door that had two guards' outsides of it in masks. Sakura guessed that it must be the Kazekage's office and the men outside must be Sunas version of the ANBU.

Naruto whispered something into one of their ears and the other opened the door for them and they entered. They stopped a few feet from the desk and bowed as Kakashi sensei spoke, "It's a pleasure to see you in person, Lord Kazekage."

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Naruto had never met the yondaime Kazekage before, but she knew she wouldn't like him. He had, after all, ordered several assassination attempts on his own son who he made a jinchuriki. However, that was not why she had never met him. No, the reason was he had already been dead when the sand siblings came to Konoha.

"It's a pleasure to see you in person, Lord Kazekage. We are team 7 of Konohagakure." They all stopped bowing and stood straight, "I am Kakashi Hatake, sensei to team 7. The blonde one is Naruto Uzumaki the jinchuriki of the nine tailed fox, the dark haired one is Sasuke Uchiha rookie of the year and the pink haired girl in Sakura Haruno who was kunoichi of the year. Thank-you for allowing is in your village."

The kage had yet to turn and face them which irked Naruto to the bone, not that she showed it. Once he did turn around he could instantly see the resemblance between him and Gaara. The eye bags and the red hair, although Gaara's red was more to the shade of an Uzumakis hair. Gaara apparently got his mother's eyes since they were blue but this man had yellow-gold eyes. His attire was the official Kage white robe with the hat as well, but with Sunas kanji on and not Konoha's.

"You are most welcome." His eyes swept across the four of them as he analyzed them. None of them looked dangerous but looks can be deceiving. His eyes lingered on Naruto longer than the others, the girl who had made clones who came to this village and spoke to his son often. "I am told you have a seal for my son, Uzumaki-san."

"I do. The seal lady Chiyo placed on your late wife was the reason she passed away in the first place. Had you come to Konoha and spoke to our yondaime, his wife, the sandaime or lord Jiraiya she would be alive right now. I'm curious as to why you didn't do so in the first place?"

The kazekage's outward appearance gave no indication of annoyance but she could sense it. "It was just after the war and-"

"A war in which you remained neutral. Had you asked, one of the four I mentioned earlier would have come to your aid."

Internally Sasuke, Sakura, and Kakashi were wondering if they could get some popcorn just to watch the two of them go at it, also the ANBU (A/N I don't know what sunagakure's black ops is called so I'll call them ANBU) in the room wondered the same thing.

"You mentioned the yondaime's wife I was unaware he had one." Asked the kazekage, clearly trying to change the subject slightly. However Sasuke and Sakura had to agree with him, they too were unaware that the yondaime had a wife.

"Minato Namizake married Kushina Uzumaki, the previous jinchuriki of the nine tails. She was summoned to Konoha sometime before the destruction of the Uzumaki and Uzushiogakure." She replied and pointed to the chairs across the desk for guests, "May we take a seat? This meeting will take a while." The kazekage gave a sharp nod and they all took a seat each.

Rasa allowed the information to sink in. Minato married an Uzumaki. There was an Uzumaki in front of him that shared a remarkable resemblance to the yondaime. He (A/N he doesn't know she's a girl) was the jinchuriki of the nine tails, which apparently the last mans' wife was. _Perhaps this Naruto Uzumaki is the man's own child. The yondaime did have morals, like me, neither of us could make someone that was not our blood a vessel to a demon._

"Naruto has a seal to be placed on your son but I don't see him anywhere," said Kakashi, not finishing his sentence making Sasuke and Sakura shake their heads and Naruto to close her eyes and let out a low sigh.

"Could you please summon Gaara? I need him here so I can put Shukaku to sleep. The sealing won't work properly with him whispering in his head." Rasa gestured for one of his guards to do that as he sat down and changed the subject temporarily.

"Whilst we wait for him. The four of you will be escorted around the village by some of our jonin and chunin. You can do your training here in the village, however, I will allocate one of the training grounds to you. Also, refrain from destroying any trees. We do not have what is needed to grow as many plants as the other nations do, as you can see."

"Of course. Thank-you for allowing us to train here and for your hospitality. If you have any questions, we will be willing to answer those which we can." Replied Kakashi.

"You have offered to fix our jinchuriki yet have not labeled a price. May I know what you wish for in exchange?"

Rasa was no fool, though many thought he was. He did not believe a hidden village would help another without something in exchange.

Kakashi looked at Naruto, _Can you tell him? I don't know what you want in exchange after-all_.

"Once the seal has been placed I would like you to _consider_ making Gaara the godaime Kazekage, and I wish to help control Shukaku. As well as making the status between our two homelands from neutral to allies. Both of us have something to gain from the other. We have people in our village who would gladly teach here in Sunagakure, but if not we could do something like a student exchange programme. I believe it would be quite beneficial."

Naruto hoped he would agree. Of course, she would help Gaara no matter what, but if she could get something out of it, why not right?

Rasa thought over what the blonde child said. It was very true that Suna could use the help of Konoha. After all, they have connections everywhere, even in the villages that despise them. "I will have to speak with my council before I decide on this treaty. As for Gaara… if he changes after having a new seal I will _consider_ making him the godaime. _Only consider_. I will not choose him yet if at all." His eyes showed the hate he held for his son. The son whose birth caused the death of his wonderful wife. But this child says that her death was on Lady Chiyo.

The Kazekage remained silent after that as he imagined a life where his wife was alive and his youngest son was happy and not a bloodthirsty monster. A monster he created.

As he did so team 7 were talking amongst themselves, "Why don't we go out and eat something after the meeting?" asked Sakura.

"I sure could go for some food right about now. What about you, Sasuke?" asked Naruto as she fiddled with one of her pouches she kept some of her scrolls in.

The action did not go unnoticed by her teammates and they all made a mental note to ask the blonde about it later. She was not one to fidget if she did so it was cause for alarm.

"Hn. No sweets." He gave a small glare but the team could see the humor in his eyes.

"So… how about a curry place? Or a sushi place?" offered Kakashi as he took out his book. The first book of the Icha Icha series. It took a lot of self-restraint for team 7 not to grab the book and hide it. This was not the time nor the pace for him to be reading his hentai.

 _Do you think this is really the time to be reading that?_

 _ **"I'm bored. And it is always time for Icha Icha."**_

 _Suuuuure._

It was that moment that the messenger that was sent to fetch Gaara came in with the latter not far behind.

Gaara looked no different to the first time she had seen him. The scowl, the large gourd, and that white cloth.

"You called?" he spoke in a gravelly voice. Everyone in the room could feel the venom leaking as if it were there and crawling over their skins. The Kazekage, Kakashi, and Naruto were the only ones unaffected which Rasa saw and made a note on.

Kakashi not reacting was understandable as he was once ANBU, however, the child was another matter.

"Konoha has sent an envoy willing to fix your seal. He will explain further." Replied the Kazekage.

"Hey, Gaara." Said Naruto in a cheerful voice as she waved as the redhead. She always envied that part of him. He had the same shade of red hair that her mother had had, yet she loved her hair non-the-less.

She received no reply from the other jinchuriki besides a blank stare, yet she knew him well enough to know that was a form of greeting for the young sociopath.

After a minute of silence, Gaara gave in, "What is it you wish to help with? Mother is telling me to have blood. I will have your-" he was cut off as Naruto had flashed in front of him and placed her hand on his stomach, making his lurch backwards.

His body felt hot. Hotter than the heat that the sun in Sunagakure ever produced upon them. Yet the heat did not bother him because there was an agitating feeling. A feel of insects crawling over his skin. His eyes were crazed as he looked at his body, but found nothing out of the ordinary.

He glared at the blonde whose eyes held pain from hurting her friend. He raised a hand to do his mothers' bidding and became further crazed when he could not hear her. Before he could question what she had done to his mother, she spoke, "Shukaku has been the one whispering to you all these years, Gaara. Not you're mother. The sand does not protect you because of him, it protects you because of your mother. Right now, I have blocked Shukaku from talking to you, you should be able to sleep in peace now. Within the next two days, I will have to place a new seal on you. This new seal will give you the ability to block out Shukaku but it will also allow you to go into your mindscape and meet him, as my seal also does.

"The seal is an eight trigram seal, based on the Hyuuga clan's eight trigrams." Kakashi stiffened when he heard this but she didn't allow that to stop her explanation, "There will not be a gate or anything like that to lock him up, but as it is your mindscape it will allow you to lock him up yourself. I would advise against that. A jinchuriki is more powerful and less catatonic when they work alongside their demon and not against them. Any questions?"

As everyone in the room was professional shinobi and kunoichi none showed how they were feeling at that very moment. Each person was amazed by the words of the blonde in front of them. It was not as if she had said anything notably remarkable but the simple fact that, despite the five nations being in the middle of somewhat peace, she was acting like an adult, similar to those of Kakashi's generation who had been forced into this dangerous life as such a young age, had such high burdens on their shoulders.

When no one said a word, team 7 bid their farewells and made their way out to go find somewhere to eat.

After a half hour of browsing, they settled for a restaurant that made a bit of everything. Their conversations were very lively, and the beginning parts were full of Sasuke and Sakura asking questions about her seal and plans for Gaara. Kakashi asked one question if they eight trigrams would cause her death to which she replied it would not as the fourth Hokage had died due to using the reaper death seal.

Half an hour into eating, Naruto grew silent as she felt the presence of someone who she knew was long since dead, even at this time.

Her teammates were startled by her sudden change and questioned her about it, yet she lazily replied a Kakashi excuse. They let her be, it wasn't often Naruto was like this, only in a serious situation, so they went with it, asking her the occasional question to which she would give a half-hearted reply to.

When they finished eating lunch they asked to go to their residence and then to the training grounds.

Naruto was still silent. The presence was dark yet very warm. It was similar yet different to her own, bright and warm or dark and cold. Never had she felt a persons' chakra similar to this. Yet it could not be who she thought it was. So instead she smelt around her but could not find the smell she was looking for.

It was maddening and she made a note to apologize to Kakashi, Kurama, and Sasuke for ignoring them like this but she was antsy. When they reached the training field she activated her senjutsu and felt the presence again. There was no doubt about it. It was him.

 _He's… alive._


	15. Chapter 15

**This has been beta'd by Ankaa Sage! Thank-you so much!**

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Kakashi was unsure how he should be feeling. Right now, he was feeling slightly dejected because the blonde wasn't paying any attention to what he was saying to the team, and she placed a block between their minds so he couldn't talk to her like that. What confused him was whether he was allowed to feel like this. Whether he would feel the same way if Sasuke or Sakura were the ones ignoring him. He supposed he would, he thought them all allies and they were placed under his protection.

Mentally confirming he was not a creep who was trying to get a child to notice him, he continued, "Sasuke. Since you've unlocked the Sharingan we've done a couple of training exercises with them, but now I want to train you with my Chidori. We've gotten your speed to where it should be, so for right now I want you to copy the hand signs and when you get the right speed of doing them, we can use it." Sasuke gave a nod so he looked to Sakura next, "Sakura. You've done a lot of medical ninjutsu training so far, but now I want you to do a chakra exercise. This will allow you to pour chakra into specific places such as your fists and allow you to do a lot of damage. "You are aware of Lady Tsunade, she could do this as well. I have a scroll for you to read but if you want an example Naruto can do something similar to it, just not of the same magnitude whenever he starts to pay attention that is." All three members looked towards the blonde who was sitting cross-legged with her eyes shut.

"I'm paying attention. But I'm reaching out my senjutsu something doesn't add up here." she trailed off causing everyone to stand on edge. Whenever Naruto said something was off, it usually meant danger. Sensing what they were feeling she opened her eyes which were orange with a black plus sign inside them. "It's nothing dangerous I think. Just sensed someone I thought was dead."

Kakashi looked at her as she looked at Sasuke before she averted her gaze, "So Sasuke's doing the Chidori eh? Be careful not to burn your arm." She teased, her eyes full of humor as she stood up.

"Um, sensei? What's Naruto going to work on?" asked Sakura.

Kakashi scratched the back of his head as he tried to think of something for Naruto to practice without blowing things up. "Actually Sakura why don't we work on your chakra building instead. The kazekage did say not to cause much damage to their village. As for Naruto, he can work on senjutsu?" he asked more than stated. He was unsure what to give her. Team 7 were front-liners, everything they did was at full lethal capacity.

Senjutsu was the safest option, in his opinion. "If not, he can help Sasuke wherever he needs help. You'd be able to explain it in a simpler way."

She gave a contemplative look as she stretched her limbs, "If he needs help, I'll help. But I'm sure he'd be able to do it. It'll just take time."

"It didn't take you very long to learn the Chidori." Stated Sasuke as he crossed his arms over his chest.

"That's because I was using an army of shadow-clones. Their memories pour into me when they are released. Their experiences also enter my memory." She explained, causing the younger members to nod their heads. It made sense.

Kakashi raised a brow, quite surprised she had said that instead of saying she had done extra training. "Um Sakura," spoke Naruto but she didn't finish her statement, causing the other three to furrow their brows. Naruto almost never drifted off her sentences like that.

After ten seconds she still didn't say anything so Sakura spoke up, "Yes Naruto?"

It seemed to be the boost that she required as she straightened and looked the other female in the eye, "When we get back to our rooms I need to tell you something that has been long overdue."

Sakura grew confused as Kakashi and Sasuke's eyes both widened. There was only one thing she could want to say to Sakura and not the other two and that was to reveal her gender.

To say the males of team 7 were shocked was an understatement. She was not one to reveal something so important to just anyone without good reason. It was that thought that made them wonder why she wanted to tell her. There had to be a reason other than wanting to not hide her identity from her teammate. She would still be hiding it from Konoha so there was no point.

Instead of questioning what she was up to, team 7 started their training as their escorts made sure they didn't destroy too many things.

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Sakura was very nervous as she sat down at the edge of her bed, waiting for Naruto to come into her room. She didn't know what to think when her blonde teammate said he wanted to talk to her.

It had been a long while since he had said he fancied her, she had thought he had simply moved on but maybe that wasn't the case? It wasn't as if she hated him, but didn't like him like that either. She doubted she even like Sasuke like that anymore.

She tried to think of anything else he could want to say to her but came out blank. Naruto wasn't one for many secrets. It was when the word secret entered her mind that she thought perhaps he wanted to talk about his relationship with Kakashi sensei.

She was so lost in thought she didn't notice Naruto entering her room, only noticing when he placed a hand on her shoulder, eyes concerned, causing her to jump back slightly and let out a small squeal.

Naruto let out a small chuckle, hands raised in surrender, "Sorry, didn't to scare you." He took a few steps back as he leaned against the desk that was in her room.

After a few silent minutes, she spoke up, "So um Naruto. What did you uh, wanna talk about?"

He remained silent, the only indication that he had heard her as he was looked her dead in the eye. He finally let out a long sigh and raised his hands before saying, "Just please don't freak out and don't hate me." He whispered the last part as he let out a kai causing smoke to appear around him.

Sakura let out small bouts of coughs, not expecting that. When the smoke faded she could see Naruto. Or who she assumed was Naruto. The last time she looked, Naruto didn't have long hair nor did he have a large chest.

She opened and closed her mouth several times, pointing to the person in front of her, the door and Naruto's chest before laughing a little, "Is this your orioki-no-jutsu but younger and with clothes on?" she asked, confused why he would show her and not one of the boys.

"No, I'm actually a girl. Have been since birth."

That caused Sakura to stare wide-eyed at her teammate, "What do you mean? I remember distinctively during swimming class on our like second year of the academy, you would wear boys swimming clothes and not girls. Heck, you've been declaring your undying love for me for years. Not that you have to be a guy to like girls but you get what I mean."

"I'm an orphan Sakura. Have been since the night of my birth. It's a lot safer for a girl to pretend to be a boy, especially when said girl is hated by the village, although I doubt the people of Konoha are that bad. But, you can never be too safe." She shrugged her shoulders before continuing, "I use a seal, and it allows me to bypass the Sharingan as well as the byakugan. Although all of the Uchiha clan knew I was a girl, my fiancé, Shisui Uchiha, Sasuke's brother's friend, suggested I pretend to be a boy whenever I was out of the uchiha district. When he passed away I saw no reason as to why I should let go of the façade. It was sort of a way of keeping to his memory, 'tebayo." She looked her teammate in the eye, wanting to know what she was feeling, but could only see the confusion.

"But why not tell me sooner? Why wait till now?"

Naruto sighed as she started to pace across the room, "It's not that I planned on telling you here. I planned on telling you after the chunin exams roughly so that it wasn't distracting you. But today I sensed something and figured things could get really complicated and confusing for you if I didn't tell you now. I had no intention of upsetting you or betraying you Sakura." Her eyes were silently begging the pink haired girl to understand and not hate her for her deception.

"I don't have a problem with you being a girl but it will take me some time to get used to you being a girl. Who knows? So I don't end up saying something I shouldn't in front of people who shouldn't know." Naruto was very happy about the reply Sakura had given her.

In her own timeline, she had been hit over the head for apparently using the orioke-no-jutsu with clothes on. Later when she explained to Sakura with help from Lady Tsunade, she had understood, apologized for hitting her across the head without listening to her and proceeded to hit her again for keeping it a secret. Said punch had led to Sakura hugging her and saying she never had to hide anything from her.

"I know this is going completely off topic but since you're a girl, and you spend a lot of time with sensei." she drifted off waving her hand in a way that showed Naruto should get it.

And get it she did as she let out a large laugh, "Kakashi and I don't have that sort of relationship. Since I'm the jinchuriki of the nine-tails and have very important parents- don't ask who, I'm not allowed to tell anyone- Kakashi is my guard of sorts. I used to have a member of the ANBU black ops watching over me but since I made genin, Kakashi was made my guard of sorts. It's why he's been training me extra hard. So that I won't need protecting, that way he can do his other job, to protect Sasuke and you. Plus he is ex-ANBU. Any other questions?"

A small blush appeared on the pinkette as she asked her next question, "Have you uh ever had your uh cycle?"

Instead of laughing like she would have, Naruto gave a serious look, knowing that Sakura wanted a serious talk, "I have, I got my first one when we were finishing up the bridge in wave country and it didn't finish till a day or two after Sasuke hurt his ankle during training. Why do you ask?"

(A/N I realize guys read this and for some, not all, this topic is something they don't want to know about, so I'll skip the rest.)

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The Kazekage sat in his office, a scroll the blonde child had given him that had the new seal for his son as he waited for Lady Chiyo to arrive.

He may not believe what the child- Naruto- said, but that did not mean he could simply disregard what he had said either. Suna and Konoha were somewhat allies, he could have gone to them for help with the seal. In fact, he had suggested the same thing, yet his counsel disagreed, claiming it to be evidence of their weakness.

Had the seal that had been placed on his wife, truly caused her to die after giving birth? Who should he truly blame, Gaara or Lady Chiyo?

For the entirety of Gaara's life, he had blamed him for the death of his beloved wife, never once thinking the seal had been the cause. Yet as he compared the copy of Gaara's seal to the copy Naruto had given of his own making, even he could see the boy had made a far superior seal than the elder.

He looked up when he heard Lady Chiyo and her brother enter, "I thank you both for coming on such short notice."

"This had better be important, Rasa, Chiyo and me were fishing." Replied the Ebizo as the two of them sat across their kage.

"It is. Lady Chiyo." He looked directly at her as she did him, Ebizo looking between the two of them. "I would like you to have a look at this seal for me, and tell me what you think of it." He handed her the scroll he had been looking at, moments before they had entered.

After a short while she spoke, "Hmm, this seems to be an eight trigram seal… the top and bottom being the writing and the middle swirl being the third component. Each spike, if you prefer the term, seems to consist of different locking mechanisms." she squinted her eyes as she bought the scroll closer to her face, "There also seems to be a lock to this. The key must be written elsewhere. All in all, this is a very advanced seal, where did you get it from, Rasa?" she asked as she returned the seal to him.

He gave no reply, instead placing the open scroll onto his desk and handing her the seal she had made, "If you would compare it to your own seal? And tell me what is different."

"Well, first the outward appearance is quite obvious. The details of which I told you when I placed it on your wife the seal you showed me now, however, was a far more advanced seal." She begrudgingly admitted.

"The seal that I gave to you a few moments ago was one from Konohagakures jinchuriki. He gave it with conditions. Conditions that are reasonable, especially if it means Gaara will stop killing people he doesn't like. I have spoken to my counsel and they agreed, reluctantly." He sat behind his desk, hands clasped together as he looked at the woman who could have been the cause of his wife's death. "Lady Chiyo this child also informed me, the seal you made was very weak and inefficient, and because of it, my wife is dead and my son is insane." He stopped there, allowing lady Chiyo a chance to give her piece.

She let out a sigh and spoke, "Looking between the two seals, my seal very could be the cause of what their jinchuriki said, however, that is not written in stone. It could very well have been due to your wife being very weak at that stage or because of something very else entirely."

"So you neither admit it nor deny it." Rasa took a breath as he thought of what to do. Ebizo held his breath as lady Chiyo looked him in the eye. He was not a cruel enough man to have her executed for her insolence so instead, "You will teach my eldest son, Konkuro, further information about puppets. That is your punishment."

Both of the elders released their breath at the judgment of their Kazekage. They both rose and left, not before thanking their kage for his generosity.

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Later that night, Kakashi and Sasuke were enjoying a nice, relaxing bath in the onsen attached to team 7s quarters. The water wasn't too hot nor was it too cold, it was just right. It must have taken a lot of research of sunagakure to get the right temperature for the day and night.

Neither of them spoke a word to the other, simply enjoying the peace and quiet serenity of the onsen.

Said peace and quiet didn't last long as Naruto in her female form, in nothing but a towel came in dragging Sakura, who was in a very similar attire.

Both males were used to Naruto joining them in the onsen, but not Sakura so they averted their gaze and listened to the two girls argue, "Naruto! We can't just go in when the boys are in there!"

"Sure we can! I do it all the time! Just think of it as a team trust building exercise! Nothing says trust that being semi-naked together in the bath!" she had a large smile on her face as Sakura had a worried frown on her face which was a very bright shade of pink.

She, like the male members of the team, averted her gaze as Naruto dragged her into the onsen with them. She sank low into the onsen as she watched clone Naruto hop behind Sasuke, arms around his shoulders as her head was on his shoulder, "Hey teme. Why are you and Kakashi looking at the walls? You guys've seen me like this before." She whined as the real Naruto started to poke at Kakashi masked cheeks.

Said blonde was right in front of him trying to get him to look at them. When neither of them caved she spoke, "We're wearing swim suits underneath these towels if you must know. Sakura has a one piece with no straps and I have a two piece with no straps." She said as she sat next to Sasuke and Kakashi.

The statement was enough to get the boys to, reluctantly, look at the girls. At this point, all you could see of Sakura was her nose and above. Everything else was under the water, however she rose her head to speak, "How can you be so casual about being undressed in front of guys?"

Naruto gave a blank look, her reply also being very dry, "I've been pretending to be a guy for years Sakura. Meaning, whilst I was under that disguise I got to see many males naked. Including myself."

If at all possible Sakura turned even redder. "Maa, I see you and Sakura and a very beneficial talk then Naruto?"

Naruto however was enjoying the onsen too much, as she allowed her head to fall all the way back, exposing her neck and showing people taller than her a lot of cleavage, causing Kakashi to turn his head immediately and smack his face with both his hands.

"Aahm. We got the talk of me being a girl, Shisui kinda and some other bits and bobs. Including how you've been charged with my safety."

"On a completely different note. What are we doing tomorrow, sensei?" asked Sakura as she sat up, lower body still under water.

"Naruto will be spending majority of the day and afternoon placing the seal on young Gaara. I'll be with him- her to make sure nothing goes wrong and that she's perfectly safe. You two are welcome to join us, but you'd be asked to stand on the side quietly. Otherwise… You'll be doing some training, same as today."

"If you choose to train I can send a clone that has quite a bit of extra chakra in to make sure it doesn't easily vanish, this was if something goes wrong I will immediately know and can tell Kakashi." Spoke Naruto as she went back into what they dubbed, 'business mode' or 'hokage mode'.

They chose to do a bit of both. If they got bored at the sealing, they would go and train, if they were fascinated enough, they would stay until the end.


	16. Chapter 16

**This has been beta'd by Ankaa Sage! Thank-you so much!**

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That night, Naruto tried to sleep but found she couldn't. Each time she did, her head became flooded with memories, some of her Konoha, some of her and Kakashi, and others of her and Shisui. None of this was uncommon for the time-traveler, yet these memories never stopped her from sleeping.

After a second hour of trying she decided to talk to Kurama for a bit in her mindscape. When she arrived she was greeted by a familiarly odd sight which made her smack her head. Shukaku, Matatabi, Isobu, Son Goku, Kokuo, Saiken, Chomei, Gyuuki, and Kurama sat in a circle in the meadows of her mind. Matatabi seemed to be playing with Shukaku's tail as he grumbled about it and one of her tails kept wagging on top of Isobu's head.

Son Goku looked sympathetically to Isobu yet did nothing to help. Kokuo looked indifferent as Saiken spoke to him and poor Chomei looked ignored. Gyuuki was having a conversation with Kurama who looked surprisingly cute in a round ball. Clearing her throat, everyone halted what they were doing and looked at her. "The nine of you wouldn't be the cause of my sudden insomnia now would you?" she raised a brow at them and when they all mumbled 'no' she crossed her arms and gave the 'disapproving mum' look. At the look they all muttered a 'yes', causing her to sigh and go up to Kurama in order to lay down on his warm orange fur.

"Shukaku. I'll be fixing your seal tomorrow. Do me a favor, don't be difficult. The world will be a better place with a sane Gaara, I assure you." He grumbled some sort of rap that reminded her of Killer B. she looked to Gyuuki and asked, "How is Killer B? I haven't had the chance to check on Kumo or her people."

"He's doing just fine, Naruto-" he was interrupted by the presence of another person.

Everyone looked to where they felt the presence. No one should be able to just freely enter Naruto's mind. No one could, besides a wielder of the Sharingan. The only people who had one were; Sasuke, Kakashi, Itachi, and Danzo. None of who would willingly enter her mind. scratch that, Kakashi and Itachi would, as they both knew the truth behind her powers. However Kakashi was asleep, Naruto could sense that, and Itachi was with Akatsuki. Her heart rate accelerated as she contemplated who it would be and let out a sigh of who it was before the shock finally registered. He looked around, confused eyes getting angrier as he took in his surroundings, yet when he saw Naruto and the nine tailed beasts his face went blank. A very, very pale blank. "Hello, Gaara." she gave a small smile and wave at the other jinchuriki as she looked discretely at Shukaku.

With Shukaku being here, it did make sense that Gaara would also be able to enter her mind-scape if had been trying to search for the demon. "Naruto Uzumaki. Where am I?" he asked, yet his voice had no underlying malice.

"Uh, my mind-scape?" she asked more than answered. She had never had someone else in her mind-scape suddenly. Minus Sasuke, during that time she and team Kakashi had gone to rescue him from Orochimaru.

He started to glare at her so she continued, "Uh I think you were looking for Shukaku and since he's here, you've come here, he's over there if you want to say something to him." She pointed to the one tails whose tail was still being played with by Matatabi. Gaara looked at Shukaku and turned to look back at Naruto before vanishing out, confusing everyone yet no one focused on that as they all carried on with what they were doing.

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After spending a half hour with the tailed beasts she had asked them to leave her mind-scape and return some other time as she had to have full concentration as she fixed Gaara's seal. Again she found herself unable to fall asleep so she got up with a sigh and quietly made her way out of the bed she was in. All four teammates had their own beds in separate rooms in an apartment-like home. She made it to the front door when a voice called out, "Naruto where are you going?"

She turned around and saw Kakashi looking very confusedly at her. Behind Kakashi were Sasuke and Sakura, the latter two looking bleary-eyed as Kakashi looked as composed as ever.

"I couldn't sleep, so I thought I'd go for a walk." She put her hand on the door handle hoping to make a quick escape.

"Excellent idea. We'll come with you." There was a look in Kakashi's eyes that she couldn't identify. She had seen this look several times yet was unable to find out what it meant.

She opened her mouth to start her protest when Sakura spoke up, "It'd be best if we all stayed together, at least at night. I get a bad vibe from Suna and don't really wanna see what goes bump in the night."

She closed her mouth and weighed her options. She could either allow them to go with her and not keep another secret from her team or use the hiraishin and keep even more secrets. Deciding she didn't want too many secrets between her and her teammates she nodded her head and shortly after they all made their way outside, the Suna ANBU following in the shadows.

They all quietly took in the sight of Suna at night, each of them ignoring the chilly bite in the air produced by the desert at night. They were in a secluded area and the ANBU were far out from the four of them when she stopped, closing her eyes. He was here again. His smell hadn't changed at all, nor had his chakra, yet when she searched more closely she could sense something different, he was happy yet he wasn't at the same time.

She could sense one of her teammates were about to talk so she did first, "Your chakra hasn't changed. It was always the warmest, bright, energetic, and just simply _pure_ chakra I had ever felt. Even now, after all this time nothing has changed. Not even your smell."

Her eyes were still closed yet she could sense the unease coming from her three teammates and made a hand gesture known only to Team 7 that everything was alright. He stepped forwards, still encased in the shadows, yet far enough that only Kurama's vision and perhaps the Sharingan, could see. "Your sensory abilities have gotten better, Hime. As for your chakra, it doesn't seem to be in two parts anymore, it seems what Itachi told me was true. About you and well you know."

She gave his appearance a once over, it hadn't changed one bit, which caused her to stand slightly on edge. She knew she had Shisuis signature weapon at home, yet this man seemed to have it as well. Then Naruto looked him in the eye. Her red silted eyes meeting his own obsidian ones causing her to gulp. It was him, no doubt. Neither of them looked away from the other, neither wanting to. Naruto could feel sand blowing through the sandals on her feet and ankles, wind blowing her hair yet she didn't _care_.

She couldn't. Not with him here. Distinctively she could feel Kakashi and Sasuke stiffen at hearing the name of one of Konoha's most wanted, which was caused her to finally break the moment between her and dark-eyed male. Sakura didn't have the same level of patience as the other two had as she spoke first, "Naruto what's going on? Who're you talking to?"

"You may as well come on down, Shisui." Team 7 grew stiff at the name, Shisui was, after all, dead from jumping into Naka River.

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Kakashi wasn't sure what to expect when Naruto had started to talk to the person in the shadows, yet from all the possibilities that crossed his mind, this was not one of them. Never had he ever thought he would meet the master of genjutsu himself again after the report he had received.

Shisui Uchiha looked exactly the same as he had five years ago. His hair was still short and spiky, similar to Naruto's in male form. The countenance of his obsidian eyes showed what he was feeling, yet held a regal stiffness that most Uchiha's eyes held. He still wore the high collared black shirt which Kakashi assumed held his clan crest on and a brown harness to hold his tonto on that went across his chest over his shoulders. (A/N praise the lord for Naruto Wikia.)

As he looked back at the male in front of him he noticed Shisui and Naruto were no longer looking at each other but to him. It was when the two shifted that he saw a mark appear on both of their inner right wrists, matching seals. Naruto looked back at Shisui, hand gently going over the seal as she looked at him, tears forming in her eyes yet none came out.

Kakashi felt a pang in his chest as he saw the usually bright girl about to cry but then felt warm when he realized they were tears of happiness and sadness. Happy her fiancé was alive and sad because he couldn't think of a reason.

"Hime do you mind introducing me and everyone here? Even though I know two of them." Came the calm voice of the elder Uchiha, a small smile as he spoke to the blonde whose cheeks dusted a faint pink.

"This is my team, team 7. Kakashi Hatake our jonin instructor, Sasuke rookie of the year, and Sakura Haruno kunoichi of the year." Shisui looked to be holding back laughter yet held himself back as he looked allowed Naruto to finish introductions, "Guys this is Shisui Uchiha, my fiancé."

Sakura gave a weak wave at the male who seemed to no longer be able to withhold his laughter, in fact, he seemed to embrace it, causing Sakura to look dumbfounded. It was not every day you saw an Uchiha laugh even when the clan was alive and thriving. When he calmed down his breathing was irregular yet he spoke, "So you really went with the dead last thing, hime?"

At his words, everyone became confused and looked to the blushing blonde for an answer, "When I entered the academy Shisui, Itachi and I decided to pull a large prank on everyone. I would pretend to be an idiot throughout the academy years and become dead last, being placed with the rookie and kunoichi of the year. After that I would stop pretending and show everyone what I was capable of, making it seem like the academy teachers weren't doing their job properly. Which in all fairness when it came to me was quite true. Only Iruka-sensei took me seriously. Kinda." She shrugged non-committedly and started to sit down before she was suddenly picked up via the waist by the Uchiha.

He swung her round in circles as she laughed, dropping her henge. After several spins, he stopped, yet did not let her go. Simply hugging her to him, her feet off the ground and head in her hair. He mumbled something Kakashi couldn't hear causing her to raise her arms around his neck.

He looked away from the two of them and was about to tell Sasuke and Sakura they ought to leave the two of them alone when he saw their expressions. Sakura looked as if she agreed with Kakashi yet Sasuke seemed torn between going to his formerly late cousin and letting the two have a moment. It was that last thought that made him freeze before he used a speed he hadn't used in years and snatched Naruto out of the Uchiha's arms and into his own, a kunai ready at hand.

He glared at the Uchiha and ignored Naruto's protests and angry cries of what he had done, "Shisui Uchiha is dead. He died jumping into Naka River five years ago, two days before the massacre of the Uchiha clan. So I ask you this, how can a dead man be walking?"

He didn't give an immediate reply and it seemed Naruto wished to know that same answer as she froze and stared at the other boy before his eyes turned into a Sharingan pattern he had only seen on Naruto before.

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One moment they were in the middle of Sunagakure, the next; Naruto, Kakashi, and Shisui were in a blank white room? She was unsure where they were. The only thing she was sure of was that Shisui had taken them there with his mangekyo.

 **Shisui.**

Unbidden, tears came out of her eyes as she looked at her fiancé. It had been too long. Thirteen years had gone by since she had seen the man who was asked to marry her and she was conflicted.

 **"I believe I will be needing popcorn in order to watch this little love triangle between the Uchiha, Hatake and yourself, brat."**

 _"Not helping Kurama."_

 **"I'm not here to help, well I am, but not like that."**

 _"Go back to sleep."_

 **"No thank-you. I'll stay awake for this."**

Kurama, when it came to drama, was like a moth to a flame. Although, in this instance, if she wasn't the one in the middle, she would also find the predicament humoring. Shaking her head she spoke, "So about how you're alive. Not that I'm not happy you're alive or anything. Because I am. Very happy. B-but ya know. It is kinda strange. You haven't even aged a day!"

Instead of answering her he replied, "So you're dating the copy ninja?" he had a small smile on his face yet she could see the sadness in his eyes.

She opened and closed her mouth a few times, trying to find a way to word this without hurting either of their feelings, "Well yes and no. I came from a time where I was dating Kakashi yet here I'm just his student who he gives a lot of leeway to and happens to stay at his apartment a lot, that doesn't mean, however, that I don't still feel the same way about this Kakashi as I do about _my_ Kakashi. Yet the same applies to you; you have always been a constant in my life, even in death." She held up the necklace that symbolized their union to be, "Never once had I taken this off. Even when I was _with_ Kakashi."

Kakashi looked to be very out of place, yet he was the one who put himself in this predicament. "You still haven't answered the question, though." She added.

He sighed and gave a warmer smile, seeming to have forgotten Kakashi was even with them, "The rikudou sennin bought me back to life. I'm not sure why. But I'm sure it has to do with why he bought Itachi and you from the future, hime."

"And your eyes?" blurted Kakashi. She hadn't thought about that.

At Kakashi's words, he looked at the silver-haired male, lightly glaring at him before scratching the back of his head, "Itachi was there when I woke up and when he confirmed I was the real Shisui he gave me the eye I had entrusted him with. As for my other eye, I took it from Danzo."

One beat, two, "WHAT?!" yelled both Kakashi and Naruto.

In return, Shisui simply shrugged, "Itachi placed him under the Tsukuyomi and I took back my eye back. The rikudou sennin said I would need both of them."

Naruto blinked, "If you need your eyes, you could have simply come to me. I still have my eyes sealed in me, Shodaime that sounds wrong."

"Why would I come to you for my eyes?" he cocked his head to the side by a small fraction as he looked at her.

"I have your eyes." She then activated the Sharingan eyes she had and allowed them to turn into the eternal mangekyo.

"I see how did you get them?"

Seats suddenly appeared out of nowhere and Shisui was the first to take a seat one leg over the other sideways as he gestured for them to sit. Naruto is the first to sit down, doing so in a meditating position as Kakashi sat similarly to Shisui. It was going to be a long time in this space, yet to the outside world, no longer than a second.


	17. Chapter 17

**This has been beta'd by Ankaa Sage! Thank-you so much!**

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Sasuke was, once again, very confused. The Uchiha had been feeling like that very often since becoming a genin and no matter how many times the feeling encased him, he refused to embrace it. He looked to his friend, jonin instructor and his cousin. His cousin who had committed suicide five years prior, leaving his fiancé in tremendous grief that no one could take her out of. Till this day, she mourned the love she would never have. Yet here he was, in front of all of them, as if nothing had changed.

Anger coursed through his veins as he remembered Naruto screaming, pushing Itachi away when he announced Shisui's death, the betrayal in her eyes as she yelled at Sasuke for saying such a thing, the anger she felt when his mother tried to console her, and the tribulation in her body as his father and the sandaime had told her there was nothing to be done, what was done could not be undone.

When Shisui activated his Sharingan, a strange pattern appeared. The mangekyo sharingan. He had only seen Itachi's and had simply assumed his brother was the only one with it. That was apparently not the case. A second after those eyes appeared, Kakashi's body sagged slightly from exhaustion, making him wonder what his cousin had made him see. Itachi had made him watch the massacre of his clan over and over again. So many times he had lost count.

However Naruto was unaffected, not surprising, she seemed nearly impervious to many things these days, it was fractionally frightening. His body moved out of his control, as if someone were pulling him to move, and punched Shisui in the stomach. He grunted in response yet did nothing to stop him nor retaliate.

Deciding he was in this position, he may as well get on with it, "Do you know how much pain you've put her through?! How much she loved you and mourned you, yet here you are, in front of her as if you were on a mission and just came home! She cried, she yelled, she kicked, she screamed! She was inconsolable! Yet when the clan died, despite her grief she comforted me! Where were you all that time?! Where were you when Itachi murdered our family?!" he yelled, he had faced years alone, with only Naruto at his side. Yet she had had no family to start with, she did not understand his pain, not fully, even if she was loved by his clan. It would never be the same.

When he received no answer he went to strike again yet a gentle and soft hand encased his wrist. Looking to the side, he was Naruto smiling sadly at him, and in that one smile, all the anger and frustration drained out of him. Never had he felt like this, not even when Itachi had murdered everyone. The righteous fury within him was and an unyielding thing that he would only release for the sister he could not have, and the clan who was all dead.

She leaned forward and planted a soft kiss on his cheek, the same as she always did when they were younger and spent time in the compound. His breathing became irregular and when he looked at the others, Shisui was sheepish, Kakashi still dazed and looked to be on the verge of vomiting and Sakura looked as if she were about to cry with her hands clasped over her mouth and nose.

"I can't explain what happened but I can say I did jump in the River and should have died, I have no knowledge of how I am here today." He could not tell whether Shisui was lying or not. The older Uchiha was a jonin after all so it shouldn't have been very surprising, but that did not stop Sasuke from gritting his teeth in annoyance.

He could feel his anger rising again but fought against it. It would do no good to allow Naruto and Sakura to see him like that, they would needlessly worry and forget about their own woes. He turned around, walking till he stood shoulder to shoulder with Sakura, glare pointed to his cousin.

This was not how Sasuke had ever imagined meeting a member of his clan, minus Itachi, again. He had dreamed of events like this, where his mother, father, neighbor or just anyone from the Uchiha meeting him. In those dreams, he was overcome with happiness yet showed very little. Here, he felt the opposite.

If he was this hostile to Shisui, he wondered what he would be like with his brother.

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Naruto had suggested they all make their way back to their residence after reapplying her henge. They walked there in an awkward silence, out loud anyway. In Naruto's head, there was a very annoying conversation going on.

"Naruto's favorite is miso ramen with cow meat instead of pork."

"No, it's ramen with fish and sashimi dipping sauce."

 _"Naruto likes any form of ramen."_

 _"Can we not talk as if I'm not here, boys?"_ Yet she was ignored, as the males in her head carried on bickering like a bunch of school kids.

"Well, I've known Naruto the longest."

"Technically, you've been dead for five years and I knew her when she was still a fetus.

 _"I've known her for the same time as the Hatake."_

"I knew she was a girl long before you did."

"You're engaged to her, it's only expected."

 _"Can you please act civil?"_

"What's Naruto's weapon of choice?"

"She prefers a katana or tonto."

"Nope, she uses kunai and shuriken as well as many jutsu and her fists."

 _"Actually, the Uchiha is correct. In our own time, Naruto was very well versed in the art of the katana and tonto, yet here she doesn't have the body strength to use either with her style."_

Naruto could feel Shisui sticking his tongue out like the immature jonin he was, causing her to smile. She couldn't care less how he acted, he could be a big jerk but she would still be overjoyed for him being alive. She finally allowed the current predicament to enter her mindfully, causing her to pale slightly, which led to Shisui looking at her. He stopped when she smiled and shook her head at him, allowing him to return to his bickering. Her fiancé was alive and well as was her sort of lover, she had no idea what she was going to do.

She had loved Shisui since she was a child and that hadn't ever changed. Future Kakashi was fine with that, never allowing it to bother him. He had once said to her that despite not being one to share, he would share her with the Uchiha. He had most likely said it to make her happy but that didn't matter.

She doubted any of them deserved that sort of life. But she couldn't just lead them on. Shisui loved her but was proclaimed dead. Kakashi saw her as a valued student and precious person but did not see her in a romantic light. She contemplated whether or not she should simply not have a love life. It was highly doubtful she would find love elsewhere, it had after all taken her nine years to move on from Shisui, and even then, that wasn't completely over him.

"You shouldn't worry yourself Hime. Everything'll be fine."

 _"I hope you're right, anata_."

He returned to his bickering with Kakashi causing her to sigh. Why couldn't two elite jonin act their age? She placed a block in her find from this three-way conversation causing the two of them to look at her, startled. They couldn't converse with each other since they didn't have matching seals.

 _"Ha, take that!"_

 _"So childish. I was enjoying that brat."_

She let out a sigh of relief when they finally made it to their residence, but once they made their way inside, things became awkward. "So Shisui-senpai? Where will you be staying?" asked Sakura when everyone sat down in the living area.

He raised a brow and the mischievous look returned before he looked right at Naruto, "With Naruto of course." Despite the mischievous look in his eyes, there was a silent threat in the air, daring anyone to deny him the right to stay beside her.

Of course said threat meant nothing if you were the Copy Ninja, "Absolutely not. I refuse to allow it."

The humor around Shisui vanished as he stared down with Kakashi, "You cannot tell me what to do or what not to do. She is my fiancé, as long as she doesn't mind me being with her, it should be no concern of yours."

Sasuke, Sakura, and Naruto flinched at the KI that Shisui was releasing, the latter because she had never remembered him this angry, not even when she had been hurt. Actually, the difference between the two was very thin. Righteous fury was something Kakashi could do nothing about it. Nor could he do anything to truly stop Shisui from sleeping next to her, it was both of their rights. "Kakashi-sensei, I really don't mind him sharing a bed with me," she said. He heard her but did not look away from the Uchiha.

"I've been tasked with your protection Naruto. I can't allow someone who has been unaccounted for, for years be that close to you." Kakashi once again denied for Shisui to stay with her.

"You make it seem as if he's a criminal!" she yelled, anger in her eyes and voice. If Kakashi thought he could tell her who she could or couldn't interact with, he was sorely mistaken.

In her own time, he had told her to stop being so physical with her friends and had decided to mellow it down in order to make him happy. The next week he asked her to stop spending so much time with the boys and she had walked away, pretending she hadn't heard anything. She had instead taken to spending more time with the male members of the Konoha 11 and Sai, spending less time with Kakashi, causing him to apologize and ask her to stop avoiding him. He spoke of how it was a primal instinct for the Hatake and Inuzuka clans to be territorial of their lovers. Naruto was not the exception to this rule.

She had sighed and forgave him, under the condition he wouldn't try to take away her freedom. The freedom she had worked hard to gain in the first place. She sent that over to Kakashi and he paused before giving her another look she couldn't decipher. She could see partial fragments of pain but that was all she could see.

His sudden stop caused all heads to look in his direction before he finally spoke up, "Fine. The two of you can stay together, but I want the door open or at least ajar so you don't pull anything." His voice had deflated as he spoke.

At his comment Shisui gave him a flat look, "She's twelve. Even if she is legally an adult by shinobi laws. I'm not gonna try anything. Unless it's consensual." He looked at Naruto when he said the last comment, giving a wink and a flirtatious smile causing her to blush.

Which in turn caused Kakashi to glower, Sasuke to look astonished and Sakura to giggle behind her hand. It wasn't long after that everyone one by one made their way to their rooms, Naruto and Shisui going after Sakura left. She had thought there would be an awkwardness as they went to bed but there was none. As always, being in his presence calmed her. The lights had been turned off when he spoke, "So what's been happening since I last saw you. This timeline and your own, Hime."

She turned to face him and giggled, "Must you call me Hime at the end all the time?"

"Would you prefer I did so at the beginning?" he tucked a lock of her hair behind her ear as he smiled softly.

"That's not what I meant and you know it." When she received no reply she answered his question, "Well Yugao was made my ANBU operative after your suicide, Itachi murdered the Uchiha, Sasuke became a revenge-obsessed emo, during our first chunin exams we faced off with Orochimaru and Sasuke got one of his cursed hickies, he then learnt the Chidori where I signed the toad contract and learnt the Rasengan. I met the jinchuriki for Shukaku, Gaara, during that as well, not long after the chunin exams Sasuke defected and I spent two years training away from Konoha to bring him back. Sasuke killed Orochimaru, kinda, and after he killed Itachi he killed Danzo. When he killed Itachi, Jiraiya, who had done the two-year training trip with me, also died when he went to Ame. I became a gama sannin after he died, it took me a month." Naruto inhaled a deep breath brefore coninuing on with the life she had endured without him.

"Konoha was destroyed and we rebuilt it, a fourth war started; the allied shinobi war, with all the five nations against Madara and Obito. We won that war with me and Sasuke gaining part of the sage of six paths power. The two of us had an epic battle and he saw reason and came home. When he came home I was named rokudaime hokage and he was named my ANBU captain focused solely on my protection. As if the hero of the five nations needs someone to babysit her right? We united the five nations as well. I also met all nine bijuu, and their jinchuriki. They all have like meetings in my head all the god damn time."

She stopped when Shisui took hold of her necklace, Shisui looking at it as she looked into his eyes, "And when did you start your relationship with Kakashi?"

His hand went up to her face and as he was about to withdraw it, she took a hold of it and kept it to her face, loving the warmth it provided and the security his chakra gave her, "It was on and off when I turned sixteen, not long after I came back to Konoha from my training trip. I was twenty when I came here."

"He had you for four years, I had you for the same length, do you remember?"

"You make it seem as if you're easy to forget. Every chakra signature was compared to yours, every food I ate was compared to yours. When I saw people sparing or fighting I compared them to you. When looking at the plants you gave me, the koi fish in our pond-"

"You said our." He grabbed a hold of her and hoisted her over his stomach, smiling at her causing a blush to appear. Despite how dark the room was, he could clearly see it.

"You did give me the key to move in with you. I wanted to move the pond to my residence but couldn't during my training trip I had Sakura and the rest of the Konoha 11 go into the district and look after them they did an amazing job." His hand was running up and down her arm as she moved to lay half on and half off him. They didn't say anything else, and after an hour of listening to his heartbeat did she allow herself to fall asleep, reminding herself that she had to fix Gaara's seal the next day.

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Shisui listened to Naruto's heartbeat as she fell asleep. He hadn't been away from her for more than three months (A/N that's roughly how long Naruto has been back) and he had missed her more than he could have ever imagined. When he had awoken he hadn't known what was going on. The last memory he had was giving Itachi his other eye and jumping into Naka River, and then all of a sudden he wakes up and in an environment that didn't feel familiar.

Not even two minutes after he had awoken, the rikudou sennin appeared and explained he had been revived for a purpose. The specifics had not been given, merely that Naruto would need his help with whatever it is she was doing.

A few minutes after the sage left Itachi had found him, shocked beyond comprehension. Shisui liked to believe his eyes had pooped out but knew it wasn't the case. Shisui then said to Itachi what the sage had said to him and gave him the eye he had given to the boy who was now the same age as him, both making their way to Konoha under henge seals, undetectable by the Sharingan and Byakugan. When they got there, they went straight to where they knew ROOT was and lured Danzo out.

When the old war hawk had gotten there, Itachi had used the Tsukuyomi on him and Shisui had taken back his other eye. He had then taken to hiding his presence when he felt Naruto return to the village. **(A/N He took his eye back around the time of the mission to wave.)**

He had followed her, in a non-stalker way, in order to see how she went about her day. She trained, did missions, hung out with her friends, sat against a tree near where he jumped and sat atop her father's head. All in all, she lived a rather happy life yet even from the distance he was at, he could see the lingering edge of sadness in her eyes.


	18. Chapter 18

**This has been beta'd by Ankaa Sage! Thank-you so much!**

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Kakashi hadn't been able to sleep until late that evening. Thoughts of Naruto in the next room to his own with a boy. A boy who was years older than her. He wasn't jealous. He knew what jealousy felt like and it wasn't this. However, the feeling churning inside him was a familiar feeling.

 **Self-loathing.**

He hated himself for not being able to say no, for not being able to deny her.

He wasn't an idiot, he knew that if he allowed Naruto to carry on the pace with him that she had set, it would only be a matter of time before he fell for her. He already felt admiration for the girl, yet he would never indulge the idea to go anywhere else. He would feel no more for her than that of a sensei. He wasn't sure when he had fallen asleep but he was awoken by a wonderful sight. Female Naruto in front of him, a tray of food in hand and dressed in the outfit she usually wore in his house. He hadn't seen her pack it so he assumed she had gone to Konoha and picked it up, for what purpose, he didn't know.

As he looked at her she gave him a wide yet sheepish grin. The food on the tray smelling to be her homemade eggplant and egg. A combination he liked for breakfast yet she hadn't made it for him, stating it made her want to puke. He silently took the tray from her, not wishing to make her sick on his account and placed it on the nightstand beside his bed, sitting at the edge as he looked at her.

She was fumbling with the back of her hair as she struggled to say something, so he opened his mouth to start talking when she raised a hand and sighed, saying, "I'm sorry about last night. I wasn't blowing you off. Shisui had every right to harm you if you kept on saying no and I never did like you telling me who I could or couldn't talk to. But mostly because of Shisui. I love both of you and don't want either of you hurt."

She stopped, unsure of what she should say next so he sighed before leaning back, arms perched behind him to hold him up, "You don't have to apologize. He's your fiancé even if he has been dead for a few years did you catch up at all last night?"

She gave a small smile as she replied, "We did. Sorta. Just me telling him a vague idea of what happened in this and my timeline. He seemed understanding yet slightly upset about the fact I chose to be with you, but like I said. He understood." she looked at him and sighed, "Are you going to eat or no?" she pointed to the food she had made him and he jostled on the bed, having forgotten it was there in the first place.

Quickly he went to grab the tray and placed it in his lap as Naruto came and removed his headband, his Sharingan eye looked into her own blue ones. Slowly she moved up the hair on his forehead and placed a kiss in the center, his eye spinning as it unwillingly recorded the moment. She kissed the tip of his scar next and made her way down, over his eyelid and stopped where his mask started, moving it down so she could lay a kiss at the end which was under it.

Her breathing was soft yet her heart was like his own, erratic. She slowly backed away from him, hand in his hair as she said, "I've gotta go koi. Before Sasuke teme burns the kitchen with his foul cooking." She let out a small laugh at her own joke and gave his cheek a kiss as he smiled at her retreating back.

He didn't notice how the self-loathing he felt had stopped as soon as he saw her.

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Sasuke stood against the wall in the back of the room with Sakura as they watched Naruto prepare for a sealing. Gaara lay unconscious on a stone dais as she used ink and her blood as a conductor. When she had explained what she was going to use, Sakura and he had questioned why she would do that, yet Kakashi had replied blood was a better conductor for funinjutsu.

She went around the dais on her knees as she made the seal, it led up to Gaara's stomach which bared her seal and Lady Chiyo's seal. Said lady was standing on the opposite side of the room with the Kazekage and members of the ANBU.

Kakashi wasn't too far from Naruto, yet was far enough to allow her to draw the seal. It was a very intricate design to it, so all he could read was swirls and scribbles. He had never thought of how hard fuinjutsu truly was until he saw Naruto doing it in front of him. He would never call her an idiot and mean it ever again.

He and Sakura stood quietly, allowing his thoughts to return to his not-so-dead cousin. This morning at breakfast Naruto, Shisui and Kakashi explained how Shisui had been kept in a laboratory human tube which was why he hadn't aged, the liquid prevented it.

When he asked them how he was alive in the first place, stating that the UPF had harassed Itachi about having found the body Shisui had said he had been placed under a long period of stasis as well as a jutsu giving the illusion of death. The person who was under the jutsu stasis had a very slow heartbeat, hardly enough to be detected yet enough to keep him alive.

The timely demise of the Uchiha clan had aided the person who had concocted this plan, and when asked who it was, Shisui had merely shrugged saying the first thing he remembered was being in a wide open area on his own, far away from civilization.

He stopped his musings when he heard an ear piercing scream coming from Gaara. He had been so lost in thought he hadn't seen Naruto perform her hand signs but he had his Sharingan activated so he could always re-watch what she had done.

Everyone besides Sakura and Sasuke seemed calm as if this were a day to day occurrence. Gaara had been strapped down to the dais before-hand and was writhing, clearly wanting to hold onto his head but couldn't. He held back a cringe as he screamed, his voice echoing around the room slash dungeon they were in. Within the screams, he could hear a deep voice let out screams as well.

The combination of the ear-piercing and deep throaty yet crackly screams was an odd one, and he couldn't stop from holding his head between his hands as he ground his teeth together from pain. He couldn't even imagine how much pain one would

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Naruto stood calmly on the outside yet restless and antsy on the outside. She hadn't thought the proper sealing of Shukaku would hurt so much. In her own time, Shukaku had requested to be returned to Gaara and vice versa, and when she had sealed him in, he hadn't been in as much pain as he was now.

Looking discreetly at her seal she noticed no flaws in her design, it was as good as what her parents could do combined. She was their daughter and had taken a keen interest in the sealing arts since a young age.

She snuck a glance at the people in the room before activating her Sharingan. Therein she saw the flaw. Gaara and Shukaku were denying each other. She mentally cursed before doing an array of hand signs and hit the ground, allowing another seal to go on top of the new one, forcing them to merge into one.

She saw the Kazekage and Lady Chiyo move forward a step each, yet stopped as Gaara's cries ceased at once. Happy she had stopped her old friend from suffering she checked the final seal on Gaara's stomach and was happy to see her original design there as well as the last minute tweak. Slowly, everyone approached the two jinchuriki, Rasa speaking up first, "You did something halfway that wasn't in the designs. What was that?" he gave her a small glare, clearly not wanting to accuse her and not sure how to word it so.

She found it rather ironic that the man who had called for the assassination of his youngest child so many times could actually care about him. But she assumed he cared more about her having done something bad that would lead to a crazy Shukaku and thereby destroy Suna.

Like she would ever.

"It was a bit of incentive, you could say." She started as the whole of team 7 stood behind her, "Gaara and Shukaku weren't allowing themselves to fully merge so I coerced slash forced them to do so. I hadn't thought they would put up as much of a fight as they did. Hence all the screaming he and Shukaku did." She was slightly out of breath and gave thanks to the ANBU that gave her a cup of water and a seat. Sealing a demon was tiring. Even if he was already sealed.

Lady Chiyo was the next to speak up, "You are quite young for a fuinjutsu master. Tell me, what is your name?"

Naruto raised a brow and shrugged a shoulder before replying, "I'm Naruto Uzumaki. My Uzumaki blood is probably what makes funinjutsu easier to learn, but it could be because of many things." Lady Chiyo gazed at her in a cool and decisive manner. Trying to understand something that was far above the human realm of understanding. Naruto was and always will be, an enigma to this world.

She suddenly started to heavily cough. Hunching forwards she placed a hand in front of her mouth, not wishing to spread germs. She could feel a person press the front of her chest and another pressing the opposite side on the back. After a few moments, she stopped and saw her hand covered in blood, requesting someone get her another cup of water and cloth. Everyone stared at her wishing to ask her their own questions, yet Sakura beat them to the punch, "Naruto are you okay? You just coughed out a lot of blood."

She gave her a smile as she leaned back in her chair, "I'm fine Sakura. Heavy sealing like this one takes a toll on a person, especially since I placed an extra one on his old one. Cancelling it out whilst keeping it in place. Also, I used a lot of blood for the sealing." she once again shrugged and gave a smile and small thanks to the ANBU who gave her some more water and a wet cloth to wipe away the blood.

She looked the Kazekage in the eye as she spoke, "Gaara will be asleep for a few hours. I can't be sure but it should be over five or maybe even six hours. He'll be disoriented but will also be able to easily draw onto Shukaku's powers with very little trouble or consequence. There should be no other side effects so if you notice anything, don't attack and just call for me. Better yet." she reached into her back pocket and handed a pronged kunai that looked almost the same as her father's own version of it. "Throw this onto the floor with a minimal amount of chakra and I'll come via hiraishin. Now, any questions?"

When she received shaken heads she internally sighed in relief and after a few moments, team 7 made their way back to their temporary home. As soon as they arrived, Naruto was the first to sit unceremoniously on the sofa just as Shisui popped his head through her bedroom door. Raising a brow he spoke, "Everything alright?" he made his way into the living area, paying no mind to the stiffening shoulders of Naruto's team.

She gave him a small smile and nodded affirmative, which he doubted slightly and activated his Sharingan only to see she had used more chakra than she clearly expected during whatever she had been doing today. Other than that, he saw no abnormalities and deactivated his eyes, giving everyone a smile as he asked how they too were doing.

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Sakura would admit to many things, pointedly her flaws, especially since her blonde teammate had taken to pointing them out every so often in a 'none spiteful' manner. She admitted to being weak. To being quite useless at first but she liked to believe she was making progress in being useful. She admitted to being a very active fangirl over Sasuke, yet she had dimmed it down considerably. In fact, one could compare her to Rin from Team Minato if they ever knew her. She was also dense in some areas but not many.

It was the very last one that was her current focus. She may have been the only one of team 7 to not have some sort of doujutsu, (A/N Naruto's being Kurama's eyes) but even she could see the tension between the males and blonde female.

She also knew why or presumed to know why. Having a presumed dead man of five years, who was one person fiancé and another's cousin as well as one of the latter's only living relatives made things very awkward. She had tried her best to ease the tension by starting a conversation here and there or even commenting on other conversations and everything would seem okay.

That was to say until Kakashi sensei spoke up. For whatever reason the man really, really hated him. No, hate was too strong a word. Disliked was more of an accurate description of Kakashi sensei's feelings for the elder Uchiha.

Sakura may be slightly dense but was considerably less so than Sasuke. However, she could not understand where their sensei was coming from with this dislike. After hearing his story even Sasuke had forgiven him. _Sasuke_. Who, on their first team meet up on the roof, had declared it a goal in life to kill a certain someone who Naruto had later identified to be his brother. Although she had already known that, having found out during her quest to know more about the boy. Yet that was not her focus.

She didn't understand whenever Shisui stood close to Naruto, touched her, spoke fondly to her, smiled at her and so on, he would glare with his single revealed eye. It wasn't as if Shisui was some sort of stalker or pedophile trying to coerce her into gracing his bed- no he was her fiancé and had every right to act how he did.

Naruto also seemed to pick up on this odd behavior of their sensei and had taken to be a bit friendlier to him and it seemed a bit of the tension that had been coiling in his shoulders eased out of him, but not all the tension left.

She sighed at the same time Sasuke had. She looked at him and asked why he had sighed and his reply had been, "Kakashi and Shisui are acting like kids, It's not befitting an Uchiha."

Sakura did very little to stifle her giggle as Sasuke had done little to say the sentence quietly. Granted, he was talking to her in a quiet manner, yet that did nothing to stop Shisui from hearing it and tensing as well as Naruto who merely scoffed and said, "Anata likes to act and believe he's the perfect little Uchiha but really he just-" he never got a chance to finish off his sentence as Shisui clamped a hand over her mouth before whispering something into her ear which lead him to remove his hand and for her to pout with a feint shade of pink dusting her cheeks and cross her arms.

Had it been any other situation, Sakura may have laughed, yet she was currently being suffocated by the annoyance and irritation as well as other emotions leaking off their jonin sensei. Their jonin sensei who had been in the ANBU black ops for years as well as the student of the yondaime Hokage. She wasn't sure what to feel. As far as she was aware jonin held back their emotions to a certain degree yet here he was, showing it to the world. Metaphorically of course.

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The sandaime was an old man who had lived through three wars, having lead two of them. He had buried his sensei and wife, became Hokage and thereby made several bad and inauspicious orders.

One of his more noteworthy ones was when he ordered the destruction of Kannabi Bridge, leading to the mental breakdown of one of his finest shinobi. Another was not being there when Kushina gave birth, he believed he could have been of some assistance had he been there despite how old he was then.

Yet the one that would truly haunt him for the rest of his days and in the afterlife was ordering a 13-year-old boy to murder all of his clan. Itachi had and always will be a gentle and genius soul. Kind and caring. He placed the safety of the village he loved over the clan he loved.

Having grown up during the third war and seeing what it had caused, he strived to be a better shinobi in order to bring peace. Yet he had never anticipated his clan planning a coup. He often entertained the idea of allowing Fugaku and the elders to kill him. At least the clan would be alive and Itachi could be happy as could be within the village he loved.

As he read the latest update from the boy he had named an S rank criminal, he felt his age truly reach him. Itachi had found Orochimaru and detained him. The sannin and suddenly vanished from Akatsuki some time ago yet was still a member as far as he recalled. So, Itachi was currently awaiting orders on what he should do.

He took out a small scroll and brush to start a reply yet found he was unable to do so. Despite everything he had done, Orochimaru was still his student and a close friend of Jiraiya's. Yet at the same time, he was an S rank criminal in Akatsuki who could kill and or extract the nine tails from Naruto, subsequently killing her.

He believed he had no other choice than to order Itachi to get any and all possible information he could from the snake sannin and then kill him. It was only after he had written his reply and sent the crow with it that Homura, Koharu, and Danzo entered looking less than pleased.

He sighed knowing he would not be returning home anytime soon.


	19. Chapter 19

**This has been beta'd by Ankaa Sage! Thank-you so much!**

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Truth be told, Hiruzen was unsure why the three of them were here. He doubted there was anything he had done that would warrant all of their arrivals at once. The fog of confusion had evaporated as soon as Danzo spoke up, "Hiruzen. Why did you allow the jinchuriki to leave the village on vacation? To Sunagakure no less."

"Kakashi requested some time ago to go on vacation to Suna. Their track record for missions has been outstanding so far and I had no legitimate reason to deny their team one."

Koharu placed a hand in front of Danzo to stop him from talking, "I cannot speak for Danzo, however, Homura and I had the right to be informed Naruto would be leaving. I could have given the child important information that would have been useful for the trip. Precautions if you would." She waved a hand and it was then the sandaime understood.

His old team was looking out for her yet Danzo still hadn't changed his mind. He still wanted Naruto to be used as a weapon. It relieved some weight off of his heart to know she was looked after very much by his team. (A/N I'm not sure if I've mentioned this already or not, but his teammates do know she is a girl, Danzo is the only one who doesn't know.) He nodded and replied, "I made sure Kakashi is ensuring all of their safety and that Naruto, as well as the nine tails, stay as they were when they left. If that is all, I have for once, finished my work and wish to go home." With that he rose and left the room as the three of them also did so, each one respectively going to their own homes.

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Naruto heard Sakura sigh as they all sat in the residence, "Sasuke, Sakura. Why don't the two of you get a head start on sight-seeing or training? I'm still a bit tired, Kakashi-sensei can't go with but I'm sure Shisui could teach you some cool jutsu?" she looked to Shisui and spoke via the seal: " _Kakashi-koi seems a bit down so I'm gonna try and cheer him up? If you henge into someone else from the village and shunshin out you should be able to train Sasuke and Sakura?"_

"Very well. I don't like the idea of leaving you with him but I guess I have to get used to this sooner or later. You've already stated that you won't choose just one of us. So what am I teaching exactly?"

 _"Anything. Sasuke's good with his Sharingan but both of them could be excellent with genjutsu with the right push. I'd work on that, anata."_

"Right!" Shisui clapped his hands and rubbed them together as he rose from the sofa. "You two get ready! We're gonna do some training!" he said very cheerfully as he henged, grabbing the two of them by the back of their collars and shunshined out.

Naruto smacked her head. That was not what she had in mind. Walking over to the door that the ANBU were behind she opened it and peeked her head out, giving a shy and remorseful smile, "My teammates Sasuke and Sakura have gone out to train somewhere, they went with someone to the training ground we were at yesterday I think. My and sensei are still in here though." The ANBU guards looked at each other, nodded and one of them shunshined away, hopefully to where the other two were.

Turning back around she closed and locked the door, raising her head to see Kakashi was looking straight at her. Why did you request they leave?" instead of answering him she made her way over and removed his headband, revealing his closed eye and the scar that ran through it.

She used a wind jutsu that no longer required hand signs, to close the blinds of the room before she removed his mask. She ran her fingers through his hair, down his jaw and neck till she went around him and started to massage his shoulders. He stiffed at first before he simply allowed her to continue, enjoying the feel of having the tension ease from him. She glared slightly at the flak jacket he wore and chose to remove it, allowing her better access to his shoulders now that there was a layer less in the way. They stayed like that for some time before he turned around causing her hands to drop to his sides. His face was marred by concern as he raised a hand and wiped under her eye, "Why are you crying Naruto?"

She hadn't noticed she was. Raising a hand to the other eye she noticed she was indeed crying. "I-I don't like seeing you upset. Your mark may not be on me but your feelings? I can read most of them. Please, tell me what I can do to make you happy? I-"

He interrupted her by pulling her into his embrace, her head tucked into his shoulder as one of his hands were in her hair, the other on her back. "Maa, I'm not used to crying girls." she sniffled and tried to remove her tears with her sleeve but they wouldn't stop.

"I'm sorry, Naruto. I didn't mean to make you upset. And I'm not, sad, per-say more irritated that I have to listen to you about Shisui. It's unsettling how you changed suddenly." Naruto could see he was struggling and by that point, she had managed to get a hold of her emotions.

Sitting up straight she placed her legs on either side of his own, his face cradled between her hands, "Really now koi I haven't changed. I'm happy he's alive and I want to spend a bit of time for him to catch up on the most important things. I was seven when he died and I was twenty when I was sent here. So it's been thirteen years nearly fourteen since I've seen him. It's the same that I did with you when I arrived here. It'll help us in getting Obito back, stopping the jinchuriki from being killed and stopping a war before it begins." she hesitated before continuing. "I never knew where Obito was exactly but I knew he was in Ame with Akatsuki before we came here, the night before I found out where they were based. I can take you there if you want to see him? I won't let you near him though, I won't risk him hurting you."

Kakashi froze at her words. She had told him Obito was alive and had shown him visions of her perspective, yet it never felt real. Now, here, she was offering to show him the friend and comrade he learned to cherish too late. He didn't move, body froze still out of shock yet he managed to gently shake his head, no. "I do, but not now. I don't know how I'll react to seeing what he has become because of me not until I need to, at least." She gave him a sad smile as she traced his scar with her fingers, removing her hands from his face in order to do so. He shivered from the feeling of having someone touch the dinted scar running down his eye. "You seem to like doing that. Tracing my scar." He clarified when she sent a confused look his way.

She chuckled in response, "Had you not done what you had all those years ago at Kannabi bridge you would have never lost your eye and Obito would never have given you his. Had he not given you his, you would not have been able to do as much good as you have today. In that respect, I'm happy you have it. Plus, in my opinion, scars are a turn on. I don't have any, Kurama heals me too quickly for that." Kakashi chose to ignore her comment on how she got turned on by his scar and paid mind only onto what she said at first. He couldn't think of a single good thing he had done with his eyes – "You helped Konoha behind the scenes, in the shadows of the ANBU black ops. You helped save captain Yamato, Tenzo you call him. All the lives you've saved, teaching team 7 all we knew, which led us to become the next sennin. You should have seen everyone's face when I, Sasuke and Sakura summoned all three of our summons they were gobsmacked." she ran her left hand through his hair as the other traced his jaw.

It was in that very position they were found by the Kazekage, Konkuro, Temari, and Baki as well as a member of their ANBU. Kakashi raised both of his hands which had somehow found their way onto her waist in the way criminals would after having raised his masks back into place. Whereas Naruto simply huffed and sat on his lap, back to his chest as she lightly glared, "Didn't anyone ever teach you it's rude to enter without knocking? I could have been getting undressed for all you knew." All eyes went onto her chest causing her to shift on Kakashi lap.

Also, due to their blatant ogling and lack of answer, Kakashi squinted his eyes as he let out a low growl, teeth grinding as his hand went to pull Naruto into his side as he let out a low level of KI. At the sound, all eyes went onto the Hatake and each one took a step back. The Kazekage cleared his throat and raised a hand in a surrender, only one though. "I do apologize for the intrusion. We had no idea the two of you were," he cleared his throat again and the teenagers looked anywhere but at the two on the sofa, "I was also unaware that the Uzumaki was a girl."

"It's an S rank secret and I should hope it will remain so until I let people know." She looked pointedly at the people who had barged into the room, releasing her own KI into the air, causing them to nod.

After a short intermission of awkward silence Kakashi spoke, "Um, you came here for a reason I presume?"

"Yes! Yes indeed, we did!" the Kazekage practically jumped for the subject change, delight and relief on all of their faces, "Gaara has woken up and the ANBU I had watching him informed me he was quietly screaming. I was quite skeptical about what they had seen so my other children and I went to see ourselves. He was clutching his head and mumbling incoherently between gasps and loud screeches, just a lot quieter than his old ones. We came here immediately after."

Nodding her head Naruto placed her hand under her chin as she contemplated the possible reasons why and figured out why "My seal merged the two of them together. Gaara can physically go into in mindscape and talk to Shukaku face-to-face now, which before Shukaku could only mumble creepily into his head. His screeches and gasps are most likely due to Shukakus chakra being bound to his. Of course, this is my guess, if someone takes me I can tell you properly whether or not it's really that."

So Naruto, Kakashi, their ANBU, Rasa, Temari, Konkuro, and their ANBU all made their way to where Gaara was. What the Kazekage said was, in fact, the truth and what Naruto had thought happened. Had actually happened. The only problem was that Gaara refused to believe he could go to sleep without killing everyone and his questionable sanity, which had forced Naruto to backhand him on the neck. After that they had walked back to their respective places, Naruto questioning the siblings whether they too would be entering the upcoming chunin exams in Konoha and received the answer she knew she would; they would. The sealing had not backtracked them at all.

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Kakashi watched his team as they enjoyed their spar with the Kazekage children. Gaara was still sleeping but Temari and Konkuro were showing to be worthy opponents against Sasuke and Sakura. Naruto had opted out of this match and requested she fights the victors of this match, two on one. She seemed to like the odds and everyone had gone with it.

Half an hour into the match it ended with Temari and Sasuke as the victors. They took a short five-minute break discussing a plan of action against the eager blonde who was practically bouncing on the balls of her feet. The fight against Naruto had been an entertaining one, she had stayed still the entire round, using Temari's technique of wind to blow away their attacks, yet it had only lasted a total of ten minutes and that was with Naruto holding back.

As he watched their fight, Kakashi's gaze went over to Shisui who was hiding behind a boulder. He was wary of the younger male, unsure what he should feel, unsure what he should do about his _timely_ arrival whilst they were on vacation. When Naruto and he had come back to their humble abode she had mentally contacted the Uchiha to see how he was doing and she was pleasantly surprised it wasn't nearly as back as she had initially thought, in fact, it had gone near swimmingly.

Which of course only served to feed his suspicion of the boy, who came back from the dead and everything was alright? Granted, Kakashi couldn't name a single person who had come back to life minus Shisui but that did not stop him from thinking what he did. Shortly after, Naruto had started cooking some simple pizza with each of their favorite toppings and they had all eaten quite contently together, Naruto herself sitting between himself and Shisui.

It was at that moment Kakashi silently damned Minato-sensei for his idea. Having the Uzumaki and Uchiha clans unite like this was a terrible idea and had Kakashi at the time thought about it he would have objected profusely. He could not think of a single personal benefit for such a union, especially to someone so many years her senior.

Honestly, Itachi was a good kid and it made more sense for him to marry Naruto. But it made sense why he didn't, Itachi and Naruto were heads of their own respective clans and disputes between the two would leave the professional life and into the personal. Once the match was over Naruto came over to where he was and sat down, taking a few sips of water from the bottle she had left beside him, taking a hold of Kakashi's hand which was behind him as he was seated.

Unconsciously Kakashi squeezed her hand and only noticed when she squeezed back. He looked at her and saw she was looking over to the bolder Shisui was behind and had a glazed over look in her eye which usually meant she was either having a very long conversation with Kurama or she was talking to Shisui. Kakashi knew it was the latter yet he entertained the notion that it was the former.

The remaining days of their stay in Konoha remained the same, breakfast which they took turns in preparing, training, sight-seeing, checking up on Gaara, lunch with the sand siblings, sparring with the sand siblings, dinner at home which Naruto and someone else would prepare, talking and then off to bed.

Of course, Naruto liked to sprinkle in lots of touching whenever no one would notice and when no one was around she would feel around his hair and trace her scar. Though he would never admit it, not even to himself, Kakashi very much enjoyed when she did that. At some point of her arrival, he had left behind the painful memory of loss and foolishness that would occur whenever he thought of his scar, which had now been replaced with the gentle memory of her fingers tracing it, or when she would kiss it, never failing to entertain herself with his gravity-defying hair. At first, he had refused her to do such things, yet when he saw the hurt and dejection within her eye he had yielded, stating to only do so when they were completely alone as she liked to take his mask off as she did so.

Temari, Konkuro, Rasa, and Baki still could not look the two of them in the eye but Kazekage had at some point, after a having had a talk from Temari, apparently discussed with Naruto sex ed. To say the blonde time-traveler was mortified would be an understatement. She had ranted how she knew plenty about the subject and gone into mortifying detail about how future Kakashi and the various ways he had taken her.

He had been unable to look her in the eye for a full twenty-four hours and had only started to do so when Shisui had cornered him as the genin were talking about how he was hurting his fiancé's feelings and unless he wanted to experience the full wrath of righteous Uchiha fury he had best act normal around her. Things had gone back to normal after that yet Kakashi's mortification grew when Naruto stated the Suna siblings would be coming to Konoha with them for the chunin exam.

That was of course not what had mortified him, what had done so was when Baki had cornered him with the Kazekage on departure to not be physical with Naruto. To which he stated the two of them were doing no such thing and would appreciate if they got such things out of their minds.

Once they were outside the borders Naruto used her hiraishin to take them not too far from the borders of the gates of Konohagakure no Sato. It had taken the sand siblings a few moments to recuperate as the first few times of such travel made one feel very sick, but once they did they all leisurely waltzed right into Konoha.

Neither Naruto nor Kakashi were sure what to expect when they saw a crow fly past and once it had circled them, chose to sit on Naruto left arm as she proceeded to pet his head, causing Kakashi and a henged and hidden Shisui to quietly glare at the Uchiha in crow form.


	20. Chapter 20

Naruto was in deep thought when they separated ways, Sasuke and herself going to their homes together where Sakura and Kakashi went home alone. She planned on using the hiraishin to go to Kakashi's afterward as to not arouse any more suspicion.

They had reported very little to the sandaime and Naruto knew Kakashi would send a proper report later, but for now, all she wanted was to talk to Itachi. The sand siblings and Baki had been escorted by Genma, she prayed to the shodaime he wouldn't flirt with any of them. It wouldn't end well for him.

Once she got into her apartment Itachi flew out of her arms and manifested in his human form. Once again Naruto showed her jealousy for the prodigy's ability to do so. She moved into the kitchen to see what she had in her fridge and was surprised to see she had a few things there. She had been almost certain that she had emptied everything out, but apparently not.

Getting on with it, she made some tea and not long later appeared in her living area where he was waiting. One hand holding a tray of four cups of tea and the other on Itachi's shoulder she hiraishined over to Kakashi's apartment only to see her lovers glaring at each other.

This was an odd thing as Kakashi was usually very carefree. She guessed she would have to get used to it sooner or later, the two of them were practically being forced to deal with each other regularly because of her. It made her feel guilty, in her own time Kakashi had been unwilling to share but said he would have with Shisui. She assumed Kakashi had only been willing to do so because of everything they had been through.

"They have chosen to live through this on their own accord, Naruto. No one, not even yourself, is forcing them to want to be with you. Never feel guilty for loving more than one person." Itachi said, catching the attention of the other two sharingan wielders attention. He placed a hand on her shoulder, steering her to sit in the middle of the large sofa Kakashi had.

He then forced Kakashi and Shisui up, making them sit either side of the fidgeting refused to look at either of them, thinking she shouldn't burden either of them with her selfish desires when Kurama spoke up. "Now, now where has the ever assertive, confident and cocky Uzumaki that dared take on the hate of the nine bijuu and the rest of the nations gone? I most certainly do not see her."

 _"She's growing up once again, Kurama_." She whispered, cold feeling settling in her stomach. She hadn't felt that in years. Not since the days, she was hated in Konoha. Not since Nagato had died.

"I think you've had enough of growing, child. It's time you let yourself live as you please. Don't let a human get in the way of your life. Your life has always been dictated for you. The only things you ever truly chose was your second love."

She had no answer to that. Everything he said was true, after all. She always did things for the greater good. For Konoha, Sakura or Sasuke. Yet that was simply who she was, one of Konoha's messiahs. "Naruto!" she was jerked back into reality by Kakashi's voice. As she tuned back into reality, she saw his face close to her own, headband gone and face marred with concern.

His left hand on her face and the other on her thigh, Shisui's was in her hair. She found Kakashi's hand was more warm and welcoming than Shisui's. Most likely due to her being used to Kakashi comforting her over Shisui. She gave both of them a smile as she gestured for Kakashi to sit back on the sofa which he did, somewhat reluctantly. In return, she grabbed a hold of both their hands, giving them small squeezes as she looked up to Itachi.

The 18-year-old Uchiha was looking at Kakashi's pictures which he had placed on his mantelpiece. In particular, two of them. One was of team 7, this picture was different to her time, she and Sasuke weren't glaring at each other and all four of them were sitting in their own way. The second was of Naruto. Just Naruto. Sasuke had taken the photo and given a copy to herself, Kakashi and kept one for himself. She was sure he had left a copy over in the house Shisui had once lived in as well.

It was of her in her dress as she sat against the tree at Naka River, the wind blowing her hair as she gazed at the river. She hadn't sensed him nor had she seen him. She had been quite surprised to see the picture when she received it, lightly smacking the Uchiha for not telling her he had taken her photo. "Senpai," Itachi had a small frown on his face. If Naruto didn't know him, she was have assumed he was merely looking like any other Uchiha. Yet Itachi had taken it upon himself to always have a small smile on his face whenever Naruto was in the room, as to not upset the cheerful blonde. He put the picture back on the mantle as he turned to look at her, his smile back in place. "I managed to get my hands on Orochimaru and put him through several weeks of the Tsukuyomi. Suna has had no contact with him, but I cannot speak for Oto. They will still most likely be entering the chunin exams, yet what they will do without their leader is what confuses me. Orochimaru is currently at the mercy of Nagato and Obito, they will not take this betrayal lightly."

Kakashi's hand squeezed her own tightly to the point of pain, yet she bared through it, she had had the Chidori through her several times, this was nothing in comparison. She did, however, squeeze his hand back to let him know and he lessened his hold, thumb running over her hand as he did so. "Oto without Orochimaru it isn't very likely that they'd attack, especially since they haven't allied themselves with Suna. That was the main factor that caught us off guard, we never expected Suna to ally with Orochimaru. Hopefully, me fixing the son of the Kazekage's seal as well as requesting for a new treaty to be made will make them side with us over Orochimaru."

She leaned against the sofa as she contemplated what her next move should be. The sand siblings were in Konoha and currently being watched by one of her clones who had henged as a bird who was nesting outside of their rooms. If they said or did anything that constituted to them helping Orochimaru, she would confront them. The tea she had bought had all been finished minus her own, she liked coffee more than she did tea."I hate to ask Shisui." she looked to her fiancé and when he gave the gesture for to her carry on. "My kotoamatsukami won't influence opinions anymore. I noticed when I used it on Kakashi upon my arrival that it didn't change how he saw me. Granted, that was what I wanted yet no amount of my wishing for that to happen would have done that. I think with your eyes being here at the same time, the stronger pair is taking over. I don't have Uchiha blood but Uzumaki. That was why I was able to use them so perfectly before."

"Where are you going with this hime?" asked Shisui when she kept rambling causing her to blush.

"I'm asking if you'd be willing to go to Ame with Itachi and use your kotoamatsukami on Obito and Nagato? If not both, then just Obito. He needs to have his mind changed, he can't start a war just for the sake of a girl who didn't return his feelings. I know I sound harsh but that's the reality of it. I can use a genjutsu to show Nagato the truth but I need to meet him to do that. I haven't gone into Ame for long durations because Nagato can see everything there. Kakashi never told me in detail what had gone on with him and Obito when they were fighting each other. All I know is when they came back, Obito gave his life to save us."

Shisui contemplated what Naruto was telling him, and as the time ticked she grew more nervous. He, of course, had every right to refuse her request, after all, it Shisui had only come back to life recently, it was highly unlikely he wanted to just be thrown into the crossfires so soon or at all.

"Very well, I was sent here to help you achieve peace with more people living, with more people happy. Truthfully, they could all kiss my ass, the only person's happiness I care about is yours. I was the cause of great pain for you once, I refuse to let that happen again. Lest of all by me."

 _My suicide was also the reason you fell into the Hatake's arms. He took you out of your grief and gave you the love you more than deserved. I may not like him, but he has my respect for making you feel the way you did when you were with him. But really hime, did it have to be him?_ Shisui said in her mind, causing her to smile and give a small gentle kiss on his forehead.

Naruto could practically _feel_ Kakashi holding back his glare and chuckled lightly before turning to play with his hair. No matter how many years she did so, it would always be one of her favorite pass times.

The other was something he refused to do with her. The four of them sat and discussed several different scenarios that could arise with Naruto going to Ame, Shisui going to Ame, Itachi staying from Ame too long and the several different scenarios that could happen during the chunin exam. Truthfully, it was Itachi and Naruto discussing the possibilities as Kakashi and Shisui popped an idea or comment every so often.

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Temari looked at her youngest brother who was sat at the window. If she didn't know better she would have thought he was taking in the scenery. Yet she did know better, even if Naruto Uzumaki had placed a new, more enforced seal on him, Gaara was looking for the voice he had been hearing since childhood.

However, he was also looking at the people. How they were so much different to the citizens of Suna, how the children here acted so very carefree. Everything in Konoha was peaceful and happy, it made her question how their jinchuriki had grown up.

She didn't allow the thought to fester as she leaned over to where Gaara was looking. Below was the girl/boy she had just been thinking of.

Naruto Uzumaki.

A true enigma. The girl had come to Suna henged as a boy and was only found to be a girl when she and the others had walked in on her on Kakashi Hatake's lap. Highly scandalous in her opinion but maybe things here were different than in Suna it was true that no matter the nation, once one became a genin they were of legal age to do as they wished.

Old enough to kill, old enough to do as other adults do. She was once again in male form, but seemed to be playing with some children, all wearing the same set of goggles. It was a cute sight to be held, someone as strong as Naruto playing delicately with children.

Temari doubted that if she tried that children would even want to be in her presence. She was cold and heartless. As the Kazekage's daughter and eldest child no one wished to be around her for either fear or other such emotions. Speaking of fear, Konkuro was ever so slightly coming to terms that his younger brother didn't want to kill him every five minutes. That did not mean he wasn't afraid he would somehow snap and use his sand coffin.

Because he was very afraid of that. However, now he didn't shiver at the thought nor presence of his brother. And in Temari's book, that was an improvement. Moving away from the window she got ready to go out and explore the village with her brothers. Gaara would most likely be quite behind them but at least he was willing to leave the room for something other than killing people.

Baby steps.

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Naruto's eyes twitched as she took in the sight in front of her. Kakashi had his Chidori out, Shisui's eyes were activated, Sasuke and Sakura were sprawled over each other on the side. She could feel a dull ache in her head as she tried to fathom what was happening before she got there. However, when Shisui took out his katana and the two males started towards each other she took matters into her own hand.

Extending two out of Kurama's nine tails, one wrapped around each of her lovers and she bought both of them before her, right brow raised as she stuck out her hip with her hand on it. In her male form, it wasn't very intimidating, however, she did have her tails sticking out, so that made it intimidating enough. "And what, pray tell, is going on here? I was under the assumption you had gone to Ame with you know who, anata?" she questions the Uchiha first. She had indeed seen Shisui off the day before

For his part, he did seem guilty about being here, "I'm a clone, hime. Like Itachi has his crows I have the Falcons. I wanted to tell Kakashi here something before I forgot when your teammates wanted to have a spar, all four of us together."

"And how do you intend for us to cover the fact that Shisui no shunshin is back from the dead without revealing the truth?" she raised a hand to gently massage her head as the ache became worse.

Not good.

"No one will know I was he-"

"Actually, the ANBU I have watching me currently in the village have gone to inform the Hokage of this. Okay, we can just say that, no that won't work." She was mumbling to herself, completely unaware that the clone had turned back into a bird and flown away.

Nor did she notice the weapons and attacks that came her way, instead her ultimate defense activated, shrouding her in orange chakra. Still, she paced blissfully unaware of what was going on around her. She was however forced back into reality when she felt herself being pushed into a very hard and very familiar chest.

She looked up, brows furrowed wondering what he was doing or how he got out of her tail. It was only then that she noticed her surroundings. The sandaime stood wide eyed as he looked at her, the ANBU and a jonin had their weapons drawn, one clearly having just released a jutsu. Sasuke and Sakura were in front of her but she could feel their unease and determination.

It was only then that she realized Kurama had manifested his chakra around her, all nine tails out, ears and bright chakra covering her body. There was a twinge in her right hand and she knew it was from the sun mark that was there. She would have to have a look at it later. Scratching the back of her neck she chuckled nervously, "So I'm a bit confused here?" she receded the chakra around her yet the people opposite her did not calm down.

It was when she looked at Kakashi's face that she saw he had raised his headband to reveal his eye. He seemed to be doing that a lot more often lately. "Naruto Uzumaki. Do you care to explain exactly what is going on? If you do not have a good answer, I will have no choice but to send you to T&I." spoke the sandaime. She had never expected him to use that tone with her and truthfully it pissed her off. Not that she would show it, she was his subordinate here and had to follow his rules, not the other way round.

It was times like this that she really missed being Hokage. Her way had ensured the peace stayed without the cause of many deaths via a war. Sure, they suffered lots of casualties such as Neji during the war, but the death toll had been far less than in the last war. Most likely due to the fact this war had only lasted a few days.

"Well, Kakashi-sensei was using the Chidori in a spar when I came and thought someone had henged as him and used one of Ku- one of my tails. When you came someone must have attacked me because of my defense, the nine tails chakra, came up. Which only happens if I'm in danger."

Everyone around her was stupefied, not that many showed it. However, she could sense their feelings and that was what came up. Her team seemed to be the only ones unaffected by her declaration. She internally beamed at the fact, wondering just how much she could actually tell them before they exploded. Metaphorically of course. "Sandaime-sama. We cannot believe a word she is saying. That thing had control over her, I know it." Spoke the ANBU operative.

This wasn't going very well, and Naruto really needed to get out of the open and soon. Preferably with Kakashi. "First of all, the nine tails has a name, but since you don't know it, he would highly appreciate it if you would call him by his title and not 'it'. Secondly, he did not have control over me, he was defending me since the shinobi in this village clearly don't value their lives. I am completely sick of being called a demon. If you want a demon, I can just as easily let him out of my seal and destroy all of you. But since I'm not anything like Orochimaru, who may I point out was practically worshiped by all of you, I choose to let him stay where he is, inside the seal. He doesn't control me and I don't control him. Just like how I have no control over Sasuke nor him over me. If any of you brain dead idiots even think that again well you don't want to know what I'll do."

Naruto hadn't been prepared to be lecturing anyone but for some reason felt a great need to do so. She didn't like the way her people looked at her, the way they behaved around her. Did they want her to near death and bring people back to life for them to treat her like a human? The jonin clearly didn't value his life as he charged forward when three of Kakashi's ninken attacked. She blinked, unsure when Kakashi had summoned them and by the feel of it, Kakashi too was confused. Pakkun spoke up next to them, "Kakashi I suggest you take Naruto away from everyone for a bit. Leave everything to us. We'll take care of it, you just take care of Naruto."

With a nod to his ninken Kakashi picked her up and shunshined to his apartment, and as he placed her down, she released part of the cause of her pain. She panted slightly on the sofa, groaning lightly as she suggested they hiraishin out of Konoha, not wanting to be around anyone who could smell her.


	21. Chapter 21

**This has been beta'd by Ankaa Sage! Thank-you so much!**

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Kakashi stared at Naruto, unsure of why she would suggest they leave. In fact, he was confused how Pakkun and his ninken got there without him summoning them and why he had suggested they get out of there. Granted, it was a dangerous situation for Naruto to be in but it was by far not the worst of her predicaments. Either of them could have handled the situation diplomatically or physically. It wasn't until a strong smell circulated from Naruto that he understood what was going on.

Naruto was in heat.

He knew this would happen, Naruto had been telling him especially after getting her first cycle that it could happen at any time, yet he had hoped beyond hope she had been wrong. It seemed Lady Luck was not on his side. He was unsure what to do when Naruto grabbed a hold of him and hirashined them to Takigakure? They were in the middle of three waterfalls and between each waterfall were trees. They were on a small round patch of land in the center which was surrounded by small boulders. Overall, the area Naruto had taken them to was very beautiful and seemed to be very secluded. He looked to Naruto who was half sitting, half laying down, panting as she tried to do something.

He had never encountered a person in heat. The Inuzuka knew when specifically they would go into heat and either stayed in their homes or left the village for a short vacation. No one else he knew went into heat as they were never associated with animals that did so. Naruto had taken to removing some layers, starting with her pouches then her jumper as she removed her henge. Long silky blonde hair flowed past her waist onto the ground as she ran a hand through her fringe, sweat marring her skin. "How long do you intend on standing there staring, Kakashi?" she asked throatily over shrouded eyes.

Unintentionally, or at least he thought it was, Naruto's pheromones circulated them in _waves_ as she laid completely on her back, squirming on the ground as she tried to alleviate some of the heat in her body. Kakashi stared unsure of what to do as he removed his headband and mask. He knew what he had to do, yet couldn't move. And it wasn't a matter that his body wasn't reacting, with the number of pheromones she was releasing it would be hard for nobody to react. His moral code seemed to be stopping him, as it should. Yet at the same time, he knew no one else would be able to help her. She had said so herself when she had introduced herself. Once again he looked at her and knew he couldn't, that was until she spoke up, "I know what's bothering you, koi." she said between pants. "I could always henge into my future form. That way you won't have to feel bad about this."

He contemplated the idea. Would her henging into her future form alleviate the guilt of taking her? No. But it would help him in doing what he needed to do. Slowly he gave a small nod, to which she gave a small smile to as she transformed into the form he had only seen in the visions she had shown him. Her hair was longer, eyes wider and the childlike chubbiness around her cheeks had gone. Her chest was rounder as was her rear. Her thighs also looked to be very supple and soft.

Her skin seemed to be shining ever so slightly, however, he noticed it was from sweat. A sudden gust of cool air made its way over to them and the blonde let out a loud moan, clearly enjoying the cool breeze as it cooled her hot skin. He clenched his fists as Naruto manipulated her tails to remove his flak jacket and his pouches. He managed the rest on his own after mentally chanting: _She'll be in pain and Shisui will murder you for it._

He gently leaned on top of her, arms either side as he looked her in the eye. The shade of blue was truly remarkable. Bluer that the water and the sky, enough so to cause envy to Mother Nature. His brows furrowed as he was unsure of what to do. He had done this before, but never to his students. Naruto looked in his eye for permission and when she received it, turned the two of them around as she took the lead. At first anyway.

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Kakashi refused to look at her as he rested his head on her lap. He hadn't been too happy to be in the position they had been in but after some time he had gotten seemed to turn the tables and had taken charge. Exactly what she needed to calm her heat. He was upset about it, yet she felt him. Felt the regret rolling off him as he clutched her to him. No, what was upsetting him so much was during their lovemaking, he had marked her. This mark was different to the one she had been given the first time.

It still bore the katakana for the wolf on and had nine tails wrapping around her, yet it also had three tomoe around the tails. That could be due to the fact this time when she was marked, Kakashi had the Sharingan or it could be due to Shisui currently being alive. She weaved her fingers through his hair as she felt a surge of chakra come through one of her seals. It was the seal she had placed on all members of Team 7 in order for them to keep in contact back when they were in Suna. Whilst Kakashi slept she quietly answered.

 _ **"Yes?"**_

"Oh, thank god! Sasuke and I were really worried. Is Kakashi sensei with you? Spoke a very worried sounding Sakura."

 _ **"Yeah, what's up?"**_

 _"The ANBU, several jonin, and the sandaime are looking all over the place for. Where are you?_ "Asked a similarly sounding Sasuke.

 _ **"We're somewhere safe. I can't tell you where though. It's a safe place that only I know where."**_

 _Fair enough. When do you think you'll be back?_

 _ **"Shouldn't be too long now, sensei's resting right now, when he's ready we'll eat and come back how long have we been gone for?"**_

"You've been gone for over seven hours!" grumbled Sasuke disproval and worry thick in his voice.

Wow. Kakashi and her sure had been going at it for some time. Doing the math she realized it was somewhere in the evening over where the others were. _"What on earth could the two of you have been doing for so long?!"_ Sakura muttered too with worry.

 _ **"Endurance training?"**_ It wasn't really a lie, they just weren't training during their endurance.

 _"In any event, come back quickly. We used the cover story you told us earlier about what we had been doing but they wanted to scan our memories. We refused and said we would wait till the two of you get back. What now?" Sasuke demanded and Naruto knew he had tired bags underneath his eyes._

Naruto felt a slight ache in her head as she thought about it. She could always alter their memories with the kotoamatsukami it would be hard but doable. **"** _ **I can do something about that, but when I do I need you guys to have your eye closed. It's a clan secret**_ **."** Again not a lie, she merely omitted the detail it was an Uchiha clan secret.

They both agreed to do so and went back to their reality. Sighing she gently poked Kakashi's cheek, causing him to grumble and burrow further into her thighs. She laughed at his childish antics and spoke, "We're needed back in Konoha, koi. We can't stay here forever."

"I can't look anyone in the eye. I can't look _you_ in the eye. I'm a terrible, childhood stealing, man who deserves a good Chidori through the chest." he grumbled burrowing further into her thighs.

She mentally sighed, this was something she had hoped to avoid. "Kakashi, I never had a childhood. You have not robbed me of it. I may be physically thirteen but mentally I'm twenty-one." She gently raised his head to make him look at her, "You did nothing to deserve a Chidori through the chest. I wanted this, I needed this. You got rid of my pain. No one else could have done that. I don't care if you've marked me. It makes me happy, I had missed your mark on me and now I feel whole again. Please don't feel bad koi." There were tears in her eyes yet she refused to allow them to fall. It would simply cause him to fall further in his self-loathing. Lowering her head, she planted small kisses down his scar to his mouth, giving him a gentle kiss, hoping he could feel her through it. She ran her hand through his hair one last time before moving to his neck and bareback, "Really koi, we're needed back in Konoha. If you let me move a bit, I can make us something to eat and we can head back. Or would you rather have a soldier pill and eat when we get home?"

Wrapping his hands around her waist he pressed his nose to the mark, "We'll have a soldier pill, go home, do what needs to be done and eat dinner. Do you think you can get up on your own?" She hated to admit it, but Kakashi really had drained quite a lot of her energy and made quite a few muscles sore. Shaking her head, he gave her a small smile as he gathered their discarded clothing.

Once they were both fully dressed and equipped Kakashi helped Naruto hide the love marks he had left on her as well as the mating mark. Naruto, with some help, managed to walk straight and when they were sure no one would figure out what they had been doing they hiraishined to Sasuke. Thankfully he was only with Sakura at Naruto's apartment. As soon as they arrived, their two teammates asked question after question about what they had been doing, where they were, what they would do and how to not get in trouble with the sandaime.

"Well basically, I designed, more of stole and retweaked this seal I found in the Uzumaki archives in my parent's home. It was used on harmless trespassers to change their memories but they would completely forget their original memory. I changed it so the person would remember the original memory but no one but themselves could access it. So even if Inoichi tried to see the original he would only see the memory I plant there. If you guys agree, I'll use that." She said and Kakashi and she sat down, Kakashi on the armchair and her on the armrest.

"When you said you wanted us to close our eyes I thought you were going to use a genjutsu or something." Replied Sakura, as she furrowed her brows.

Nodding her head Naruto continued, "I was going to use a genjutsu but if they went through your head when I wasn't there then we'd be in trouble. This way, even if I'm all the way in Iwa, what they see will be what I put there."

Nodding Sakura decided to make them all tea as they discussed a new training regime that would work around the chunin exams. Naruto made comments on questions she had seen during her first exam and made sure to point out that Ibiki enjoyed toying with people's minds. She also stated that if they were given Anko as a proctor, to pack for several days.

Not long after they had finished their tea she got on with the memory altering seal. The new memory went as such; Kakashi made a clone and had a spar with it as it took the form of Shisui Uchiha. They had sparred together against Sasuke and Sakura and won. They then went against each other which was when Naruto came and used her tails around both of them. Kakashi then dispersed the clone as Naruto kept muttering about something when the attack came and she activated her defense. The others had arrived roughly that time and attacked with jutsu causing Kakashi to take her in his arms, to make sure she didn't get hurt.

They all praised her for her idea, which was when she stated it had been Kakashi's idea as it had been a seal which was used after the war and during his time in ANBU. It took over an hour to do this to all three of them, using a lot of chakra and concentration on Naruto's part and on their own. It wasn't easy to have her presence in their minds due to her mind hosting ten people technically. Once it was done she was very hungry and decided they should all go to Ichiraku ramen, her there Naruto only managed to eat a single bowl of ramen before the team was summoned to the Hokage.

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Sarutobi watched with Ibiki Morino as Inoichi scanned the minds of team 7. He had been overly shocked when he had heard the news of Shisui no shunshin being in Konoha so one could only imagine his surprise when he went with them only to see Naruto with all nine tails out. Kakashi had never mentioned the girl going in one tail form never mind nine and she seemed to be in control of what was happening.

He assumed the reason the copy ninja had not told him was that he knew for certain there was no threat to Konoha however when he had taken her into his arms and gone after that for several hours he assumed it was something different. He had growled at them as well, and from what he and his ninja had seen, Naruto was spending a lot of time at Kakashi's home rather than her own. He prayed to his sensei's Kakashi wasn't bedding his own sensei's daughter however when the team had arrived he knew it was a lost hope.

The man looked about ready to tear the guard's arm off when he had placed a hand on Naruto's arm in order to direct her to where she was going. He wasn't even paying any attention to his book which usually had all of his attention, instead, it was out and he was looking at Naruto. He contemplated whether or not he should stop this before it becomes more yet once again his idea showed no fruit as when she discarded her jacket he caught a glimpse of the Hatake clans mating mark on her shoulder through her mesh shirt.

Coming out of his musings Inoichi came in and spoke, "All four of their memories are roughly the same, with the difference of angles and thoughts. I can find no lie and everything adds up. Shisui Uchiha was simply a shadow clone of Kakashi henged. They sparred and Naruto came using the nine tails chakra to subdue them. We were there for the rest. There is no threat from Naruto as he had full control over the chakra even though the nine tails was controlling the tails at the time to defend him."

"Thank-you Inoichi. Please write this report and put it on my desk straight away. Did you by any chance see what was going on after that?"

"Sasuke and Sakura simply went as we know, they ate and went to Naruto's home. Kakashi and Naruto's thoughts I could not enter. The nine tails forbade me from doing so."

Hiruzen nearly dropped his pipe at the statement, "What was the nine tails doing in Kakashi's mind?"

"I asked the same thing when Naruto appeared stating there was a seal on all members that allowed them to go in each other's minds, this extended to the nine tails as well." He nodded his head and decided Naruto and Kakashi both had to come to his office and debrief him on everything.

He had though Kakashi would tell him anything he needed to know that was apparently not the case, however since Naruto was his mate it only made sense he didn't want to tell other people about what goes on between them. Team 7 made their way out when he greeted them, telling the couple to go to his office with him as he needed to have a private word, causing the blonde to groan stating she wanted to eat. Having mercy he ordered a chunin to go bring several bowls of Ichiraku ramen and bring them to his office. They could talk and eat.

Naruto and Kakashi sat on the chairs across from their kage as he took a poof of his pipe. "Kakashi. When I assigned you to team 7 I gave you a mission, please tell Naruto and myself that mission."

"You wished me to confide in Naruto, gain her trust and be an ear for her reveal her secrets. Should these secrets affect Konoha's safety I was to inform you otherwise the rest stayed between the two of us." Kakashi looked to Naruto who gave him a small smile causing him to smile back slightly.

It was that that showed Hiruzen the extent on their feelings and knew no matter what he did, nothing would change between the two of them, "How long have the two of you been mated for?"

This question caused the Copy ninja to turn to his kage, wide-eyed and Hiruzen would bet he was also blushing a similar shade to Naruto, "Damn you and your perceptiveness, old man." Muttered Naruto as she rubbed the mark on her neck.

The action caused Kakashi to groan as he picked her up, placing her on his lap as he gave the part of her she had been rubbing a kiss. "So I can safely assume you haven't been mated for very long. Should I leave the room? I would prefer you didn't do anything in my office." His question caused Naruto to laugh loudly as Kakashi smiled at her, eyes watching her in adoration.

"You called us here for a reason, old man." She looked him in the eye, her smile dimming slightly yet its usual brightness.

"Kakashi. Did you not feel it was necessary to tell me that the nine tails can access everyone's thoughts? Or that Naruto could derive its power?"

He saw Naruto stiffen on Kakashi's lap so he began to run a hand up and down her back unconsciously, "Not at all lord third. You specifically stated that I was to inform you when the safety of Konoha was at risk. As Naruto can control the nine tails, there were no possible threats to our home."

Hiruzen kept his shock under check. He hadn't heard Kakashi call Konoha his home since before his father had killed himself. He also hid his joy for had finally found someone to cherish even if it was a 13-year-old girl who was technically under his protection. And Naruto really needed to get out of the open and soon. Preferably with Kakashi.

He dismissed the two, informing them he would call upon them if he needed to know anything else.


	22. Chapter 22

**This has been beta'd by Ankaa Sage! Thank-you so much!**

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It wasn't until he went home that Hiruzen truly grasped what had happened. Kakashi had slept with and marked his ward and Konoha's blonde joy. It was that very thought that caused him to send two ANBU operatives to the man's apartment to warn him of the consequences. He made sure to send an ape with them, making sure Kakashi knew it was his Hokage who had sent them.

What he hadn't planned for was them all to return, shaking and muttering about the wrath of the nine tails and a sleepy jinchuriki being awoken. The following morning he summed the two of them to his office only to see Naruto glaring as she sat on the arm of Kakashi's seat. "Ojii-san. I don't appreciate being woken up in the middle of the night just so you can warn Kakashi of being with me."

His sweat dropped under his robes, not used to the small amount of KI coming from the young blonde, "I was merely making sure he knew what to expect, Naruto. To make sure he knew the risks that came with loving a jinchuiki. That and I also wanted him to understand the drawbacks of mating with my ward without asking for my blessing first. You are a preteen even if you are a legal adult, which does not mean I have to like it." Naruto sighed as he regarded her, unsure of what to make of her choice of outfit. They had hiraishined straight to his office and she was wearing one of Kakashi's old shirts with her trousers. An odd combination considering the clash of colors but Naruto enjoyed her outlandishness. Clearing his throat, he drew in their attention, "On a different note Kakashi you are aware that whilst you have marked her and she is an adult by our laws, you cannot get her pregnant till she is at least sixteen. My preference would be when she is eighteen, however, sixteen is the law."

A faint blush crept up Kakashi's face as Naruto simply raised a brow before shrugging, "Moon tea or a simple jutsu would do the trick. I'm sure in the Uzumaki archives there's a contraceptive seal somewhere, if not I'll try to make one." He raised a brow, unsure how to respond to that, yet he didn't have to as Kakashi simply grumbled something under his breath causing Naruto to laugh and kiss his cheek as she spoke with a smile on her face, "Don't worry koi. I took some tea before and I did have some of the pills that Sakura demanded I keep in case of emergencies. What emergency she had in mind I don't know but it came in handy."

He cleared his throat to get their attention, "On a different note Kakashi. What is the verdict on your team entering the chunin exams?"

Kakashi looked back at his leader, "Maa, they're all entering the exam."

"Geez, Kakashi. You could sound a little more excited that your rookie team wants to enter the exam." She leaned closer so she was practically draped over his shoulders.

"She does have a point Kakashi. Show a little enthusiasm or dislike that your little mate will be going into a dangerous battle to fend for herself where you cannot defend her without tarnishing her good name."

Kakashi's eyes darkened as a hand wrapped tightly around Naruto's waist, hoisting her on his lap as he let out a low growl. "Ojii san! Was that necessary?!" she yelled indignantly at his as she turned around, removing Kakashi's headband placing gentle kisses to his scar as she muttered to him so low he couldn't hear. Naruto silently muttered curses to the Hokage for his comment. Why he would say that to him straight after marking her confused her. It would only cause problems as it was now. "I'm fine. I'll be safe. I won the war against Madara I can win in a fight against genin." She kept repeating as she kissed his scar, not caring that the sandaime was watching. He should have known better than to cause Kakashi to feel angry and protective. After a few minutes he finally calmed down, causing her look at her leader, "If that's all, ojii-san, we'll be going." With that, she hiraishined them to his apartment.

He sat down on the sofa, glaring at the table as he mumbled to himself causing her to shake her head and start-up brunch. They had left first thing in the morning after getting dressed, not even having breakfast and now it was annoying her. She decided a light and simple meal of pancakes and waffles would do the trick and started to cook them. Once they were done she turned around to see Kakashi watching her with his mask off. "What is it?" she asked when he didn't look away.

"Do you intend to have my mark covered?" he asked as he took a fork and started eating the pancakes.

She hesitated, unsure, "Um I'm not sure, do you want me to cover it?"

He didn't reply straight away causing her to shift as she ate her waffles which she had covered in melted Nutella, "I want it uncovered." He hesitated in his reply, most likely due to the fact the jonin and elder chunin would recognize the mark on her to be the mating mark of his clan. They would think a male had been the one to claim Kakashi.

She gave him a sad smile as they ate their brunch in silence, heading out to the training fields to get set for the exams the following day. Training consisted mostly of them asking each other random questions and answering them before heading off to each of their individual homes, Naruto of course going with Sasuke before going to Kakashi's were Pakkun suggested she just bring all her things there since she was there far more than she was in her own home to which Kakashi had agreed to state she could have the guest room.

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Sasuke walked alongside both female members of his team as they walked up the stairs, avoiding the henged Izumo and Kotetsu as Naruto had stated. Once they got upstairs they saw Kakashi leaning against the door, Icha Icha nowhere in sight causing all three sets of brows to raise, "Did you lose your book, sensei?" asked Sakura as they stood in front of him.

"Maa, I thought I'd leave it in my pocket when I came to congratulate you for not getting into any fights. Also," he paused for a dramatic effect and it annoyed Sasuke when he realized Kakashi was getting the reaction he wanted. "I want you to be careful in there." With that, he poofed out of their way and allowed them to enter. Naruto's earlier words to not attract attention firmly in mind as they went to the corner after sighting the Suna siblings.

They managed to avoid making a scene up until Naruto decided to punch a Konoha shinobi. Luckily he took it in stride and their first proctor arrived. Ibiki Morino. Head of the intelligence unit's torture and interrogation. Sasuke would like to believe he kept a calm and aloof expression but he honestly didn't know if he had. Internally he was resisting the urge to flinch under the gaze of the heavily scarred man.

They all made their way inside and started the exam causing him to look incredulously at it. The test was not made for their age shinobi. In fact, he was sure the answers themselves didn't have a shinobi level but an intellectual level.

He was certain only a handful of people in the room would be able to take the test without cheating. It was that final word, cheating, that made him remember what Naruto had said about Ibiki sometime ago, about how he liked to play with people's minds, making them sweat to get his answers. Reverse psychology was his forte. He gave the room a quick once over and was about to activate him Sharingan before he heard Naruto talking into his head.

 _"Don't react. I know the answers. Just copy what I'm saying, you as well Sakura if you don't already know the answers."_

With that said she recited the answers and the three of them began talking amongst themselves, not even noticing when Ibiki spoke up, only noticing when their crazy purple haired tokubetsu jonin came barging through the window, exclaiming to be their next proctor, causing his heartbeat to accelerate.

Everyone who knew of Anko knew of her love for the forest of death. There was no way they weren't going to be there for their next exam and he couldn't refrain from shivering at the mere thought of going to that place again. After Kakashi had insisted they go there for training during their second month as a team he had been scarred for life.

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Sakura shifted as she watched their crazy purple haired proctor lick the blood off Naruto's cheek. And she was fine with it. In fact, Naruto was simply chuckling as she said something low so the others couldn't hear.

Naruto had apparently recently gotten a tattoo that she was showing. It was odd to think of Naruto as a girl but it was a lot easier to accept that, she thought. Naruto liked to act like a boy, dress like a boy in public, and do general things a boy does however behind closed doors with herself, Sasuke, her home or Kakashi sensei's home she was similar yet so different.

It was because of those little things, it made it easier to take it in. Her dressing as a girl with her chest size makes it very believable. Sakura found she enjoyed having another girl on the team. In fact, Kakashi and Sasuke had both pointed out that she had been focusing on her training and less on her figure and crush on Sasuke. She still liked him, merely made different things her priority. They went in a tent and filled in a liability form. She understood why, since the other nations would love to blame Konoha for any fatalities whilst in the forest of death. They had trained in there with her team a couple of times, and she knew the danger of being in there was high.

Looking around she knew not everyone, even Konoha shinobi, and kunoichi, had not been in the forest and didn't know what was awaiting them. It made her feel better, they knew the layout of the forest well and with Naruto's tracking and sensory abilities, it would make it easier. She had also improved on her genjutsu and was sure she could easily use it on her opponents to make them believe it was a reality.

They made their way into the forest, Naruto having sealed the scroll somewhere the other two didn't know. They also had a key phrase; Will of fire and the other was the sandaime reads icha icha. The confession shocked her for a total of five seconds before she nodded, accepting it. Naruto had made over a dozen clones and they made their way to where they could sense other attendees. They leisurely made their way through the forest, making a stop only to eat or go to the toilet outside.

It wasn't until they came to the river when six clones of Naruto arrived with scrolls, heaven, and earth both causing Sakura and Sasuke to raise their brows. Before either of them could voice their question she answered, "It makes sure there's less competition. We'll most likely be fighting for the next round, so the more people disqualified means fewer people join the fight and fewer people die."

The two of them slowly nodded at her logic. It was well thought out and neither of them could refute her answer. Sakura jostled slightly however when Naruto grabbed a hold of them and teleported them to the tower. Sakura blinked as she forced her stomach to stop churning. No matter how many times Naruto had used the hiraishin she hadn't managed to get used to it.

She decided to focus on her surroundings. They were in a room full of jonin, she could see Kakashi-sensei, Iruka-sensei, Kurenai-sensei, Asuma-sensei and the sensei they had been recently introduced to, Gai-Sensei. She chose to ignore the man in full green spandex as he yelled about youth, instead of taking interest in the look Naruto was giving Kakashi and vice versa.

They had been doing that a lot recently, ever since the day they had vanished for several hours yet she and Sasuke had decided not to comment on it, however, it seemed the genin were not the only ones to notice as Gai sensei stopped his rant as he stared wide-eyed with a slack jaw at Naruto. More specifically her tattoo.

Of course, this didn't go unnoticed by the other jonin's in the room as one of them hits the man over the head and whispered something to him which caused him to stop his gawking and to cough into his hand, mumbling something to Kakashi as he moved to sit down next to the guy who had a senbon in his mouth.

Naruto seemed to finally notice the stares as she raised a hand to cover it, a blush covering her cheeks. It was this action that caused the senbon guy to walk over to them and talk, "My name is Hayate Geko. I'm a jonin of Konoha. The three of you need to finish this exam by taking them into a room downstairs and doing the final things."

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Naruto mumbled as they made their way into the hall where she let Sakura think about the riddle and everything went the same as last time. Except for this time, Sasuke didn't have Orochimaru's cursed hickey and Sakura was actually useful. Silently they made their way upstairs when Naruto felt Gaara's chakra signature and excused herself, she hiraishined to the room the sand siblings were in and transformed into a bird as she flew outside of their window, eavesdropping on their conversation.

She was trying to see if they had had any communication with Orochimaru. Itachi had said they shouldn't have, but it never hurt to be careful. After an hour she felt her teammates call her through the joint seal so she left a henged clone in her place as she met up with them.

They were in the dining hall which was set up buffet style and sadly they had no ramen so she settled for rice and curry. They sat and had a peaceful lunch and slowly made their way to the training area in the building where they saw Kakashi, Genma, Raido and Gai sparring. The room was basically full of half-naked men with plenty of abs that were all sweating.

Naruto may be faithful, but that didn't mean she couldn't appreciate the sight of her. Her ogling was cut short when Gai got an instance for the lotus and when he went high she noticed he was aiming for Kakashi who was helping up Genma.

Her eyes turned yellow as she fused Kurama's chakra around her and made him kick her arm instead of either of them. She wasn't proud enough to deny that it hurt because it did, but it wasn't something she wasn't used to. She felt her arm bone fracture slightly yet Kurama's chakra healed it right up.

The sudden rush of unknown chakra caused her henge to fall as she transformed into her female self, causing all eyes to widen as Kakashi pulled her to him and checked on her arm. "It's fine. Just a tiny fracture that's already healed." She said loud enough for everyone in the room to hear, yet it did little to please Kakashi. In fact, he seemed very annoyed.

"What in Konoha possessed you to jump in front of Gai's lotus attack?" his jaw clenched shut as his Sharingan eye spun hastily, making her slightly dizzy.

She shrugged, "Well I didn't think you or Genma were gonna get out of his way in time and figured I'd be the least injured should anything actually happen."

Instead of replying he threw her over his shoulder and shunshined them out of the room. She sighed knowing it was the mark making him act like this, future Kakashi had done the same thing after first marking her but after a week or so it had calmed down. Apparently, that faze had yet to weave out of his system.

Her back suddenly met the sofa and Kakashi went over to the kitchen and ran his head under the sink after having removed his headband and mask. She weighed her options on whether she should stay put or go over to him and decided to go over to him, however as soon as she got into a sitting position a hawk came through the window and landed on the coffee table, cawing at her to take the message tied around its ankle.

She removed it and let it rest on her shoulder as she called Kakashi over. After drying his face he sat down beside her and she placed his head on her lap as she read the message. It was from Shisui.

 _ **'It's your fiancé and senpai. We've managed to successfully use my eyes on the masked man and made him discuss things with Pein. Thanks to the memory you showed me of Nagato I managed to show that to him and he changed his mind. I will be returning shortly on my own as your senpai has things to do with Red Dawn.'**_

The next part was written by Itachi _, 'As he said, I have business to attend to here, however, I will make it to Konoha in time for meeting up with you and my brother. I have requested Shisui behave himself and act like he should around you and your sensei/lover. Until next time, hime.'_

"It was a letter from Shisui and Itachi. Everything has gone accordingly to plan and now Itachi had business with Akatsuki. Once that's done he'll come over to talk to Sasuke, also Shisui is already on his way here." Kakashi groaned as he burrowed into Naruto's lap, allowing her to further pet his hair that she had unconsciously been doing. The hawk had fallen asleep and just as she was about to speak up there was a knock at the door, causing the both of them to turn and look at it.


	23. Chapter 23

Naruto sensed who they were. The hokage, Anko, Genma and Gai were all outside Kakashi's door and she was willing to be all her money that she knew why.

Kakashi got up and fetched his headband and discarded mask then made his way to answer the door, Naruto facing it as she sat on the sofa.

The afore mentioned people came in after changing their shoes for sandals, each taking a seat somewhere causing Naruto to go and sit by Kakashi who was standing next to the kitchen counter.

No one said a word and the tension grew in the room. For as long as she had known Gai and Anko they hadn't really shown to have very much patience outside of missions so seeing this was a small shock to her system.

"What brings all of you here?" she asked after having had enough of the stifling tension.

On one answered her question and the room once again felt heavy, as if a rock were being placed over them. She contemplated the thought of it being a genjutsu but remembered that Kurama would have mentioned something odd, which he hadn't.

After what seemed like a lifetime the sandaime finally spoke, "Naruto, Kakashi. All jonin present in the room you hiraishined into know you two are bound, well at least most of them who know Kakashi's clan enough know. And Naruto, the people who saw you turn into a girl… I cannot remove their memories as there are many. Not just the men who were sparing but those who were watching from the top of the room also know your secret. Your only bet is to reveal to everyone about you being a girl. With Kakashi's mark on you it is very unlikely that anyone would dare lay a finger on you without knowing the consequences they would face."

He allowed the information he had said to sink in when in reality she already knew. From the moment she had arrived she knew she would tell her friends and the rest of Konoha the truth about her and she never went back on her word.

However despite how long she had been here for she hadn't devised a plan on how to do that. When she and her teammates had discussed it they had suggested that she invite everyone to the hot spring for a mixed dip with swimwear and work her way from there and right now that plan was looking very tempting.

The sandaime must have seen that she was undecided as he stood up, making everyone else stood up, Genma and ANko left with him, leaving only Gai with the couple.

He stood staring at Kakashi's eyes. No emotion on his face. Like this it was clear they were seeing the serious Gai that was a war veteran and a master in taijutsu. Seeing him like this unnerved her, he hardly ever went like this and it made her anxious.

Future Gai had been very forward in the future, having seen Kakashi and Naruto interact with each other and had tried setting them up on dates with the help of Anko yet neither of them had been aware they were already together.

This time, however, she didn't have a very good reputation and it didn't bother her, usually. But this was Gai, the one person who tried the hardest to get Kakashi to open up and cared the most. Asuma cared a lot also however as he had been out of the village for some time during their teen years, he wasn't as close as Gai. Kakashi had once said Gai was the closest friend he had yet he would never tell the man that.

If Gai disapproved or dislike their union it would surely upset the Copy ninja to some degree and Kakashi had already suffered enough by the hands of those close to him.

After a two minute and thirty-two second staring contest Gai finally looked away from Kakashi and to her instead. "Is this who you choose? Your final decision?"

All Kakashi did was give him a stiff nod, fingers flexing dangerously close to his kunai pouch. "He- she is very young Kakashi. I would never have thought-"

"Gai sensei." She interrupted knowing Kakashi was on the verge of losing it. "I may be physically young but I am the jinchuriki to the kyuubi. Because of that I've had to experience several things no one from my generation has even read about. And if I hear from you as well that he's 'stolen my childhood'-" she said in quotation marks, "-I'll go ballistic."

Gai's serious demeanour lasted another five seconds before he bent over and started to laugh whilst clutching his stomach.

Naruto blinked, this wasn't the reaction she was expecting considering his earlier reaction. It was then that everything went down south, Gai used his sunset genjutsu and struck the infamous good guy pose at them and of course he gave a speech on the power of love in youth.

It was basically Gai being Gai.

It didn't take long for him to go and most likely torture his students with several hours of training.

When he left Naruto felt her head start to ache as she tried to get the ringing in her head to stop. She was used to loud noise since she had all nine bijuu talking in her head as well as being very loud herself, but Gai and Lee were on a completely different level with their volume and sheer energy they put into talking.

Deciding to take a seat on the sofa she looked up to see Kakashi looking at the door with glazed over eyes. When she called out for him he gave no response and that was when Pakkun came out of the room for the ninken.

"What's up? Why did the hokage and the Gai guy come here?" he perched himself on her knee and barely gave Kakashi a glance.

"Some people found out about Kakashi and me then some other people found out I was a girl. The hokage told me who and also said I need to start telling people things or he'd basically have to do some damage control."

"Hmm… Did Gai say something bad? Is that why Kakashi is staring in mid-air?" they both looked back to Kakashi finding that he had yet to move even a muscle.

"I don't think he did. But then again I can't claim to know Gai sensei very well like Kakashi does."

Pakkun nodded and as he jumped off her knee there was a knock at the door. Confused she went up to answer it. She knew it was her team before she even answered yet she still looked on confused.

Allowing them in, they changed their shoes for sandals as they made their way into the living room, blanching slightly when they saw Kakashi staring at the door and not paying them any heed.

"What's wrong with sensei?" asked Sakura as she sat down on the sofa, Sasuke sitting on the opposite side of her and Naruto on the armchair.

She bit her lower lip, the answer demanded more information that she wasn't sure if Kakashi wanted them to know. "The hokage and Gai sensei were here a few minutes ago about me being a girl blah, blah, blah. Nothing too important." She waved a hand but internally she knew something was bugging him.

"Are you sure? He's never looked like that before. Minus that time we followed him to the memorial stone but you know what I mean."

"Give me a sec." she pointed to her head and gestured to Kakashi and they both nodded, understanding what she was about to do.

' _Kakashi? Are you alright?'_ asked Naruto.

There was no immediate reply but after some waiting, she finally received one, _'I'm fine, Naruto… just thinking…'_

' _You don't seem to be just thinking. You're completely spaced out. Do you even know your adorable little genin are here?_ ' she teased, remembering what Kakashi liked to call them but she was sure he meant it truthfully and to rile them up as well.

' _No…'_

' _Well then you're clearly not fine. Tell me what's wrong.'_

' _I'm telling you, I'm fine.'_

Deciding not to push too far she changed the subject, _'Sakura and Sasuke are here and are asking why the hokage was here. I told them briefly why but left out the part about us. Do you want me to tell them or no?'_

When she received no answer she assumed he didn't want them to know yet when he spoke up it was in real time, "Sasuke, Sakura there's something you need to know." Her eyes widened at what he was saying, _he couldn't possibly mean to do this here could he?_

 _ **I believe your lover does indeed intend to do this here. It should be highly entertaining.**_

"You see Naruto and me are together." He stated with a straight face yet she could see a small glint in his eyes.

Naruto turned a bright shade of pink where as Sasuke and Sakura looked confused. "What do you mean by that?" asked Sasuke clearly frustrated by the way he had stated the fact.

"I mean Naruto and I are in a relationship." This time, Sakura turned pink to match her hair and Sasuke's eyes bed red with his sharingan, outrage clear on his face.

He turned to Naruto and spoke, "Is this true?"

She looked between all three of them, unsure who she should be talking to. "Um well you see, uh… basically yes but there's more to it?"

"You don't sound too sure. He didn't simply… force this on you did he?" he asked, eyes glaring at Kakashi who now stared at her.

All of her.

"No! No, nothing like that. If anything I forced this on him." She breathed out hastily. The last thing she wanted was for people to think that she had been forced into a relationship like this with Kakashi with no say what so ever. However she doubted that many people particularly cared at the current time.

Sasuke gave no reply and instead looked to their sensei giving him a look that declared more words that anything he said would have. It was a look that her father should have given to any man that dared try touch his little girl, yet Minato Namikaze would never get the chance to ward off Kakashi.

Although she was unsure how he would feel. Kakashi had been unwilling to commit to a relationship back when the yondaime lived so perhaps her father would be happy that Kakashi was mentally prepared to settle down, yet she doubted he would feel quite as happy when he found out it was directed to his daughter.

Shaking her head, she bought herself out of her musings and saw Sakura looking directly at her also, causing her to shift uncomfortably. Naruto enjoyed people paying attention to her however the look Sakura was currently giving her was unnerving. "What?" she finally let out after the pink haired female said nothing.

Sakura hesitated before replying, "That tattoo on your neck… it has the katakana for wolf on it and… Kakashi sensei's family has something to do with wolfs right? Well, what I'm getting at is, does that mark have to do with your relationship to Kakashi sensei?"

Naruto blinked as she was reminded of the fact that Sakura had been trying these past months. That Sakura was paying attention to people other than Sasuke. "Um well yeah… He kinda put it on me, though it's not a tattoo per say. It's between a tattoo and seal 'tebayo." She scratched the back of her neck, her nervousness showing as she chuckled half-heartedly.

Kakashi seemed to have enough of mentally torturing the both of them as he finally moved closer and indicated he would sit on the armchair. Naruto moved so he could sit on the chair part and not the arm part where she usually liked to sit.

Kakashi's left hand wound around her waist as she leaned against him both of them letting out small sighs they had been holding. Like this, in front of their closest people it removed a tension that had been brewing inside them, Naruto mostly since she had been hiding their relationship in her own time which was something this Kakashi didn't have to go through.

"What about Shisui? He's alive, you didn't have to choose sensei, if you really did choose him that is." Spoke Sasuke as he let out the smallest of pouts, still put off by the whole thing.

She hesitated on that one. She knew she wouldn't choose between either males, they also knew that. However telling Sasuke that would be a completely different matter.

"She's chosen not to choose and instead has decided to have both of us." Kakashi was on a roll today. What next, was he going to tell them her tattoo/seal mark he put on her was a sign they had sex as well? He gave her a look, as if having heard what she said and when he opened his mouth she lightly smacked the back of his head.

"Are you trying to test his patience? Sasuke doesn't have very much patience in case you didn't know and this would most definitely make him mad and start doing fire jutsu's everywhere." She hissed low enough for Kakashi to hear but not the other two.

Sakura was apparently not pleased with her earlier answer, "You never said how he put it one you though. Something that intricate requires time and the only time you two had to be alone to do it was when you vanished for a lot of hours."

Naruto really, really wished she hadn't asked. Kakashi didn't seem to be in the concealing mood right now and his mouth didn't seem to match his usual mind set. "The answer is simple. I bit her whilst she was in heat and gave her the mark." He moved his right hand to brush over her mark making her shiver. It was a highly sensitive area whenever he touched it and only he would be able to elicit such a reaction.

Despite her self-control and resolve she let out a small whimper when he removed his hand. They both turned back to look at them, neither catching one to what he was alluding to.

They both muttered under their breaths about what heat was and how it could relate to Naruto till they slowly looked up at her, then her stomach, her mark and then to Kakashi.

Sakura turned the shade of the average Uzumaki's hair colour and Sasuke had to be held back by a kagebunshin.

Both reactions were quite understandable, however it wasn't their reaction Naruto and Kakashi were paying attention to.

No. The only person's reaction they currently cared about was a certain messy haired Uchiha who was standing deathly still in the corner of the room.

* * *

It had taken time for Naruto to get her teammates to go back to either the exam tower or their homes, and they only did so when Naruto stated Shisui was returning and needed to be informed of the matter.

Sasuke had been reluctant even then, muttering curses and about the various different ways he could hurt Kakashi if he dared hurt Naruto. He wasn't happy, but he seemed to understand it was her decision and she was happy.

Finally once they had left, Kakashi had left the apartment also, stating he would leave them alone to talk as he went to go visit the memorial stone.

She made the two of them cups of tea and they both sat on opposite pieces of furniture, yet neither of them touched the tea. Neither of them spoke until she gave in.

She was never known for her patience.

"Say something. Please."

He looked up at her, the first time since they had caught eyes upon his arrival. His eyes seemed to be looking through her very soul yet she didn't dare look away. She wasn't ashamed, she made it perfectly clear this was going to happen several times.

But that didn't mean she couldn't feel guilty. Guilty for doing so whilst he was away doing something she had asked him to do.

"There's really nothing I can say. You told me this would happen but… I thought I would have time to… adjust to- to Kakashi and you and me. I…" he faded off, not sure what he should say. She understood the feeling.

"I get it. But none of this was planned, anata. His marking me was unplanned. I went into heat and the problem with that is, Kurama is very picky. He tolerates you because you make me happy but because of your sharingan he would never allow anyone of your bloodline to sate me in that state. I don't- I'm not ashamed. Of either of you. I love you both and want both of you. I'll bear with the villages hate towards me for having more than one lover, but I'm used to it."

She moved to where he was and kneeled next to the sofa, one hand on his knee and the other cupping his face. "What's really upsetting you? I know it isn't to do with this mark. It has no other properties than signalling I'm alive and partially his. Yet apparently this time round its showing I'm partially yours." She pointed to the part of the mark that held the sharingan tomoe. "The first time round this mark wasn't there. I thought of different reasons and the tops ones were because I have you this time round or because kakashi still has the sharingan, but the sharingan isn't part of his biology. It's like a seal, it uses your chakra and it exists but he wasn't born with it so it shouldn't have affected the mark."

They sat in silence after, the only sounds that could be heard was their breathing, their heartbeats and the same sounds from Kakashi's ninken.

What happened next took her by surprise. She had expected him to get up, to yell or let out some steam by ranting yet he did something not even she could predict.

He kissed her.

* * *

 **A/N I think I actually made it to my two week deadline thing I said I would try to do in the early chapters and I must say I feel quite accomplished having done so. It hasn't been easy and updates might get slowly due to the fact that my sister is going to be induced on Wednesday and I will have to help her look after the baby.**

 **Well, I hope you enjoyed this chapter and comment anything you want to ask or point out!**


	24. Chapter 24

Naruto kneeled stunned. She had never kissed anyone besides Kakashi- Sasuke didn't count- and she didn't know how to react. Deciding against sitting like a statue or pushing him away she hesitantly placed her hand that was on his face in his hair.

Seeing it as permission he raised her onto his lap, never allowing their lips to leave each other. However, Shisui was no Kakashi and had very little kissing experience, if any, and had to stop their kiss. He opened his eyes and Naruto was sure he was seeing a bright red face with disheveled hair from his running his hands through it. He looked no better, his spiky hair messier than it usually was and his cheeks were a bright pink. "I've been dying to do that for a while now." He confessed as he smoothed her hair with his fingers.

She, however, seemed to be tongue-tied and unable to say a word. The most she could do was able to say was a bunch of sounds that varied from "Ba" to "Te". She wasn't even sure what it was she was trying to say.

Kurama was also making very interesting sounds varying from growls, laughs, and comments all in one. It reminded her of the first time she had been kissed by Kakashi but decided against thinking of that lest Shisui get very, very upset. Understandably so. Once Shisui was happy with his work of her hair he stopped and left his hand to play with the small hairs on the back of her neck, "I suggest we get up, I doubt Kakashi would be too happy to see us like this in his home."

Oh, she was 98% sure he would be anything but happy. She imagined Kakashi as a storm. Calm at first but them all hell descends.

She got off his lap and stood, face pink as she moved to drink her tea. It had gotten cold due to having left it there but she needed something to go down her throat or she would never be able to talk. She prayed Shikamaru never saw her like that or she would never be able to look her advisor in the eye ever again.

As she turned around to say something she felt a sudden spike of very familiar chakra. "Sorry, Shisui. Somethings wrong, I've gotta go." She leaned down and gave him a short peck before teleporting over to where he was.

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The field was full of blood and loud voices, some yelling for help and others yelling for him to she would face the consequences later, she elongated one of her tails and wrapped it around the male in front of her and brought him over to her. "You know when you enter someone else's village it's highly impolite to try killing people." She ignored the gasps, the wide eyes and the yelling of monsters.

She focused solely on Gaara. He was glaring, but at no one in particular. He was also breathing heavily and seemed to be in pain but she knew that wasn't so, no one could penetrate his ultimate defense minus people at kage level power. Or, you know, people who drain all his chakra and threaten his people but they're not his people, not yet at least.

"What's wrong, Gaara? It can't be Shukaku, I've blocked him from bothering you." she loosened her tail slightly to show she meant no harm.

Gaara's sudden attack in the village was unexpected. The seal should have prevented Shukaku from whispering in his head. But then again it might make sense if people started calling him a monster. When she received no reply from him Temari came over, "Your village people called him a monster. It seems his reputation is known here and-"

Before she could finish her statement Naruto's eyes began to turn red and the released Gaara, turning to the people she looked at them, "Would you like me to let the nine tails lose? I think everyone here had forgotten what a monster really behaves like. If I were in nine tails form you wouldn't be calling me a monster, you'd be running. Don't make me or Gaara angry. The wrath of a bijuu is not one Konoha would like to see again now is it?" she saw the fear in her people's eyes as they all took steps back.

No doubt the old man would hear about this and then she would hear about this but didn't care what he said. He wasn't the one that had to watch his brother in arms fall into insanity by his own people. He didn't have to listen to his people whisper in front of him and throw things at him. Naruto was the one who had to face that and she would be damned before the allowed Konoha to treat Gaara in a similar fashion.

"I will also point out that by accosting Gaara and his siblings, you could be causing another war. He is the son of the yondaime Kazekage and it would do you all good to apologize before I let him kill you." She quirked a brow and whilst a few people looked around first, others bowed and apologized immediately.

To her shock, the ANBU in the area did nothing and simply let things carry on. The ANBU were aware of the hardships she had gone through as a child since Kakashi, Itachi and Yugao had at some point protected her, however, Yugao was her longest operative.

Everyone carried on what they had been doing before accosting Gaara so she turned to them, gave a wave and said she would meet them later for the announcement of the next round before using the hiraishin back to Kakashi's apartment.

The sight she entered in on was intriguing yet not completely unexpected. Kakashi and Shisui were glaring at each other after having finished having an argument which they both ceased as soon as she entered.

Cocking a brow she regarded them both, "I think the two of you should just fight out your pent-up frustrations. I'll help. I'm going to send you both to the valley of the end and there you can fight to your heart's content. I'll return in the evening with dinner and see if you're done. I doubt you'll be able to get along civilly till then."

Both males blinked at her and gave unsure nods. "What makes you think that'd sort anything out?" asked Shisui. He had never been one to favor violence similar to Itachi, however, unlike Itachi, he had played a part during the third war and knew when violence was necessary.

Kakashi, on the other hand, played a major role in the war, violence had cost him his friend who later turned into a psychopath, and his other friend, who he killed. Thinking that both of these two had fought during the war and what roles they played set a cold stone of dread and guilt.

Guilt. Her birth had come with the price of her father, their yondaime Hokage.

She cleared her throat and forced herself to continue, "You're both frustrated. In my experience, there are only two ways to get rid of frustrations." She raised a finger as she continued, "One is to have sex till your frustrations are mostly gone and then start blabbing about all your problems. The other is fighting. I prefer both but have been publically known to do the second a lot more. Take Sasuke and me, we fight like cat and dog." She explained hoping her explanation was good enough for them to understand.

She had never been good at explaining, even to Konohamaru who she had made her apprentice. In fact, when it came to talking to the genin and other shinobi, she left the explanations to Shikamaru who would explain her explanation.

She assumed her explanation was good enough as both males nodded their heads before taking seats on either side of the sofa, a clear indication she was supposed to sit in the middle yet she instead chose to go into the kitchen and prepare them some food.

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Sasuke wasn't aware where he was going, only knowing he had to get away from where he could see them.

Away from Naruto.

Away from Kakashi.

And away from Sakura.

All of them were confusing him. He wasn't sure what he was supposed to do. Naruto was with both his cousin and their sensei. He couldn't make two sense out of it. He had no idea how long it had been going on for, she had always been able to tell him things she kept from other people yet this she kept to herself like she kept being a jinchuriki from him.

Now that he thought about it, it made sense. Kakashi and Naruto always got along a lot better than Kakashi did with others. Sasuke had seen him interact with others with indifference yet he noticed Naruto.

The way the two of them interacted with each other made more sense like when Kakashi stayed behind with Naruto whilst Sakura and himself had gone for some training with Shisui back in Suna.

Naruto also. She spent a lot of time outside her apartment and now that he thought about it, he thought she was at Kakashi's place. The thought made his blood boil. Kakashi was thirteen years her senior, he should have known better than to sleep with the girl his cousin was supposed to marry.

Then there was Shisui, he couldn't even fathom what Shisui's reaction would be. Shisui had been in love with Naruto, as far as Sasuke knew, and he had been headstrong with his declarations that Naruto would be his bride. Seeing Kakashi with Naruto would most likely break his heart.

It was then that Kakashi words came to mind, Kakashi had stated Naruto would not choose between them, that she loved both of them. He could perhaps see that, however, Kakashi and Shisui both don't seem like the type of person's to share their lover. Kakashi may read hentai all day, but he had once preached to Sakura and himself about how you shouldn't sleep around and be in a relationship with the person you at least like.

They had been more heartfelt than Sasuke had been prepared for which once again led to another person.

Sakura.

Ever since Naruto had ranted off to the pink haired girl she had acted a lot more tolerable and he didn't mind her presence, but that didn't mean he liked her being around him for so long. He accepted the fact they were teammates and had to work together and in his book that was an improvement.

Sakura had been acting more and more like a kunoichi and whilst he admitted she was acting like a proper candidate for him, he wasn't able to accept her like that. To Sasuke, she was like that one cousin he had come over to his house that he liked but irritated him to no ends.

The past few months she had shown less and less interest in him and he had assumed it was because her crush on him had ended however he had overheard her conversation with Ino before the second exam, she still liked him.

That left him with one job he could actually do, tell Sakura he couldn't be with her gently.

That would be the hard part, and he had to make sure it was gently since she hadn't been a nuisance as of late and she was actually being considerate of Naruto.

He was jolted out of his musing when he bumped into something.

A tree. He hoped no one was looking or he would never hear the end of it.

A citizen of the village hidden in the leaves had bumped into a tree. The irony.

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Sakura was at home with her family eating whatever it was her mother had made absent-mindedly.

The news Kakashi-sensei had given them earlier still fresh in her mind however she doubted she was having the same turmoil as Sasuke.

Where he was most likely focusing on Naruto choosing sensei over his cousin she was focused solely on what Kakashi sensei had said, and the way Naruto had been acting.

If she looked back hard enough, the actions of their sensei and Naruto became a lot more understandable. Naruto liked to spend a lot of time doing her own thing and sensei never berated her, although it wasn't as if Naruto wasn't making progress because she was.

Naruto also knew a lot about sensei that both Sasuke and her combined knew. She acted more familiar with sensei as well, more so than she did with Sasuke.

She was trying to pinpoint a time when Naruto and Kakashi sensei's relationship went past student and teacher to lovers. Her best bet was when they had gone to Suna and Shisui had appeared. Kakashi sensei had been apprehensive of the Uchiha but now that she looked back it was most likely jealousy that made him act that way.

There was also the way he would react whenever Shisui was mentioned by either Naruto or Sasuke, he would scowl and Sakura was sure he would burn a page in his Icha Icha with his eyes if it was possible. His posture would also stiffen and he acted on edge whilst glancing often at Naruto as if Shisui would appear magically and take the blonde away.

She debated on what she should do and decided on the best course of action. She would watch them all. It was like her own personal soap opera and she was a member that wasn't shown often that would have a few episodes of screen-time.

That thought made her humor go away. The main character's friend usually had drama that would always end badly. She had sorted out her problems with her work, and dedicated herself to the kunoichi arts, specifically focusing on inryo ninjutsu. The only thing drama could hit her on was her none existent love life, however, she was adamant that that wouldn't ruin her. If anything went wrong there then she would only allow it to make herself stronger.

Or at least she hoped.

Once lunch was over she went into her bedroom when another thought came to mind. Kakashi sensei had stated that Naruto had chosen both males to be her partners but that left the question of who she would marry. Shisui was proclaimed dead and Kakashi was thirteen years her senior and no doubt they would be looked at with scorn.

Then again Shisu Uchiha was proclaimed DEAD so there was also that to deal with. She couldn't wait to see what Naruto and the others would do to Danzo for everything he had done. However, she still didn't know what he had done minus what Shisui had told them. Naruto, Shisui, and sensei liked to call him a war hawk and other names yet the other two members of team 7 were left in the dark in regards to what bad things he had actually done.

Another matter that had been causing her head to spin was the sandaime. He had clearly been to Kakashi sensei's apartment earlier in regards to what had happened at the tower so he had to know what was going on between Naruto and Kakashi sensei yet as far as she knew, he hadn't done anything about it, which led her to wonder why.

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Sarutobi sat behind his desk, his face contorted between a pout and a scowl. He had received a scroll from the children of the yondaime kazekage which had been passed on from the man himself stating Team 7 had asked for a new treaty to be made between the two nations in a way that would benefit both parties equally. The way to maintaining this treaty was in the children of the yondaime, both Hokage, and Kazekage.

Gaara no Subaku and Naruto Uzumaki seemed to get along very well, in fact, their holiday to Suna seemed to be based solely on fixing the seal of Shukaku's jinchuriki.

He was unsure whether or not to berate them and if he did, unsure who to berate. The idea had most likely been Naruto's, however, Kakashi should have known better than to go along with something like this without first meeting with his Hokage, even if he was involved with Naruto.

The terms of the agreement were simple enough that Hiruzen should have no problem having the counsel agree with them but he was certain members would still be against it due to the two jinchruiki.

The other matter that needed to be attended to was Kakashi and his liaison with each other. He would have to inform the council and he was sure it would blow up in his face. He was also certain Konharu would demand to see them both and the talk with them, especially due to the age gap.

The thought of Naruto being with anyone after having lost Shisui was lost on his, however, the thought of Kakashi being with anyone period was not even in his capacity on understanding.

He had been engrossed in his career and Icha Icha with a fictional girlfriend for so long he was certain Kakashi would never settle down as did several men and women. In fact, Might Gai often came and discussed Kakashi's lack of a sex life to him and Hiruzen had to admit it was quite odd.

However, it was not his place to judge, no matter how much he would rather strangle Kakashi than allow him to be with his little ball of sunshine. The sooner he accepted it, the sooner the rest of the council and thereby the rest of Konoha would also accept it.


	25. Chapter 25

**A/N I would like to apologise right now over how long it's been since the last update. In honesty, I had this done near the 12** **th** **and my beta- Ankaa Sage (bless you!)- gave it on the 14** **th** **but I only now remembered I needed to get this online. That and for the past week I've been off sick from work and in my mother's book that means I can't type; even my accessors work.**

 **So here I am and now onto the story!**

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It was the day marking the end of the second round and Team 7 stood in line with the rest of the contestants who had managed to pass. Naruto was quite surprised to see the Oto team here, however, hid it well. She was also very pleased with herself in regards to the fact Kabuto and his team weren't here. She had sent a few clones to deal with select few teams in the forest in order to lessen casualties. Of course, she had shown no remorse for the silver-haired boy and broken several bones before handing him over to T&I.

She paid no mind to what the sandaime was saying since she had heard it before and given a similar speech after taking the title of rokudaime in her own timeline.

She also paid no attention to the matches, focusing instead on meditating, allowing nature's energy to swirl around her but never absorbing more than could arouse suspicion.

However, she did pay attention to the pairings of this preliminaries: Sasuke vs Shino. Shino had forfeited when Sasuke began burning to bugs, understandably so. Sakura had gone against TenTen who completely destroyed her despite the amount of training Sakura had gone through over the past couple of months. Next had been Temari vs Ino, the former not taking any crap from the Yamanaka fangirl and had made quick work of her. The next match had apparently been very interesting, Kiba vs Neji, however, the Hyuuga had won in the end after sealing all of Kiba's chakra points.

Naruto's match had come after that and she had been against Dosu, she had made such quick work of him that it had several people gaping and others laughing. Gaara's match was against Zaku this time however the Oto ninja had forfeited before the match had even begun, clearly knowing how Gaara fought. Chouji had gone against Kin and at first, it seemed like the girl would win had it not been for her calling him fat, which led to his victory. Hinata had been paired against Lee who had taken it easy against the girl and still won, however, the Hyuuga heiress did manage to land several blows on him. The final match had been a slow one, Kankuro vs Shikamaru. Shikamaru capturing Kankuro in his shadow and the Suna ninja refused to give in, however, after a certain point he had lost however Naruto wasn't sure how.

Not long after the matchups for the finals had been announced; Sasuke vs Chouji, Naruto vs Neji, Temari vs Shikamaru and Lee vs Gaara.

Someone up there must have been having a great time at Naruto expense as she was certain her mouth was gaping over the matchups. They had been the same people who had fought against each other during some point of the chunin exam minus Sasuke and Chouji.

She prayed Gaara would try to destroy Lee this time, however, she made no such promise in regards to Neji. He still had fates stick up his arse and she was going to be the one to remove it. In regards to Shikamaru and Temari being against each other again, it made her happy, nothing brings two people together like fighting.

Speaking of fighting/venting, it bought up the memory of the other evening when she had requested Kakashi and Shisui fight against each other.

When she had arrived at the valley of the end they both looked thoroughly spent however she knew they weren't done. She held no delusions that the two of them were only fed up of each other and had told the both of them they should either with the others company or alone, vent out their frustrations with Naruto.

Neither would want to fight her, so verbally telling her their issues would release the remaining tension and she was proud to say her plan worked, mostly the two males were still skirting around each other however at least they weren't glaring at each other.

She sighed as they made their way out of the hall, all thoughts about the third round leaving her as she remembered what was going to happen today. Initially, they were going to wait till after the third round however that would cause a lot of problems in their plans considering Shisui was alive.

So now, she took Sasuke by the elbow, invited the others to a pool party the following day, bid Sakura and the others farewell and left for the valley of the end. The place was getting pretty famous these days with how often she was leaving the village etc.

In front of her stood Kakashi and Shisui who were sitting three feet away from each other and she shrugged before looking at Sasuke whose face was blank. "So uh Sasuke. I've taken you here to discuss something important. Which also just so happens to be an S-rank secret, however, we've all come to agree that this is the best course of action."

He gave her no reply, most likely because Kakashi was still around and he felt the need to keep up his ass-hole façade. Well, _partial_ façade.

"Right, but uh I need- we need you to not react till you hear us out till the end, okay?" his brows furrowed for a moment before he gave that infuriated grunt replay. "Lovely, lovely. Um if you don't believe us then well I'm sure the four of us know right?" she turned around and looked to her two lovers and where Itachi was in the trees and they all gave nods. Absentmindedly she nodded and yelled, "You may as well come on out now!"

Not even two seconds later Itachi shunshined between Shisui and Kakashi causing Sasuke's eyes to grow wide before he activated his Sharingan, ready to attack.

This time Sasuke wasn't confused. He was enraged and felt slightly betrayed. Here in front of his was the man he declared he would kill back when he was only seven, the man who had murdered his entire clan and showed him over and over again.

Next to the man was his own cousin, sensei, and his teammate. Shisui was debatably okay, he wasn't alive when Itachi had murdered everyone, however, Naruto and Kakashi were completely different cases. The two of them had been very much alive during the time of the massacre, Kakashi having been assigned as one of the ANBU who had inspected the scene and Naruto had been one of the people he had allowed to see him during the aftermath of the massacre.

How either of them could stand to be in his presence without wanting to cause him some bodily harm was not in his field of understanding. Itachi leaned down next to Naruto who gave him a small peck on the cheek causing the elder Uchiha who was technically the eldest since Shisui didn't seem to have aged at all whilst in the hands of that man.

"Right. I promised not to react but someone explain before I use it." He spoke through gritted teeth as his left hand twitched, causing realized to dawn upon Naruto and Kakashi, he was referring to the Chidori, which in itself was highly dangerous since Sasuke had only begun to use it and was another two weeks away from being able to use it safely.

Nervously chuckling she rubbed the back of her head before shaking it, "Right so Itachi do you want to explain?" she turned around and the two of them looked to each other, Itachi not replying causing her to sigh and nod, as if she understood his unspoken words.

He noticed Itachi had his Sharingan activated, however, the strange pattern the Sharingan had on that night wasn't present yet he had little time to ponder on the thought as Naruto began talking, "Well you might want to take a seat because this will be a lot to take in. and it might take longer. Maybe."

Cautiously and slowly he sat down and the other two sat as well, Naruto between Shisui and Kakashi whereas Itachi sat behind her perched on a rock. It was like a poster image and the four of them most certainly looked the part of stunning famous or important figures, however, he would never admit that out loud, even under the threat of death.

Taking a deep breath she began, "Well I guess I should start with your clan. More specifically your kekkei-genkai. The Sharingan has four stages, per say, which first would be the activation, however, that will only be a total of three tomoe between both eyes, the second will fully activate three tomoe in each eye. The third would be the mangekyo as example."

As she said that, Itachi's eyes changed a pattern, Shisui's eyes bled to their Sharingan eyes and changed the pattern and most confusingly Naruto's did the same as Shisui's, however, the pattern was slightly different. "Right I have the Sharingan as well however that's a story for a different time. Itachi's eyes are the mangekyo sharingan whereas Shisui's and I's eyes are the eternal mangekyo. The eternal is the final form and by far the safest physically however not mentally.

"Activating the Sharingan needs the person to feel the pain of losing someone dear to them and it doesn't even have to be through death. Madara Uchiha activated his by cutting off all his ties with the Shodaime completely, losing the friend he once had because of clan differences and the edo period war. Again, a story for another time or at least later.

"In order to activate the mangekyo Sharingan one would need to kill or at least feel responsible for the death of a loved one. This can't be just anyone, it has to be someone very close to you like Itachi was to you before he left. You might be asking what this had to do with anything? Nothing really, it just needed to be pointed out. Right, so the reason why Itachi massacred your clan.

"The reason could technically be blamed on my birth which again could be blamed on the Uchiha clan since the reason why kyuubi left my mother's seal was because Obito Uchiha forced him to do so." He noticed Kakashi flinched at the name then stiffened, "The Uchiha clan's kekkei genkai holds the power to control the nine tails and that was why he attacked that night. The yondaime Hokage was forced to seal the nine tails inside me and that consequently led to the death of both my parents that night.

"It was known, kinda, that the Uchiha's held the power to control him and were blamed for the attack thereby being shunned by the village. This was something the Hokage had planned for in advance and he made sure that the people knew I was the jinchuriki and that I was engaged to an Uchiha. This was to prove the Uchiha weren't a threat, however, all it did was cause the village to shun your clan further, believing your clan to be cursed along with the fact that they were associating themselves with the demon brat. This carried on for years and the hatred of the Uchiha clan grew causing them to plan out a coup d'état against the village. Shisui had been told the plans and had told the Hokage around the same time Itachi had been informed about the plans. He also informed the sandaime and the two of them were both asked to monitor the clan.

"One thing led to another and Shisui convinced the council that he could use his kotoamatsukami, the special genjutsu from his mangekyo, which can also change a person's opinion and general thought process. They agreed to allow his to use it, however Danzo Shimura had been against it and had taken one of his eyes. That night Itachi and Shisui both met at Naka river where." she faded off, clenching her eyes shut as she seemed to struggle with breathing.

Shisui leaned over to her and Kakashi moved out of their way, he mumbled something to the girl, however, she shook her head. Sighing he looked at Kakashi who cautiously nodded and together they managed to calm her down, both of them holding one of her hands each as Shisui continued.

"That part she's getting mixed up. Itachi was supposed to go on a mission however instead came back and got me out of some trouble I was in. With Danzo having taken one of my eyes I had to make sure my other eye didn't fall into his hands as well so I gave it to Itachi. I told him what he needed to do, stop the Uchiha's by any means necessary or an internal war would begin and the other nations would use that as an opportunity to attack us, leading to another war.

"I told him I would leave him with a gift, the mangekyo and I jumped into the river." Naruto gave a harsh flinch and clenched her eyes tighter, causing the two of them to go closer to her, Itachi even began massaging her shoulders.

They looked like a family, Shisui and Naruto being the couple, Itachi the big brother and Kakashi just that really close friend of the eldest that had their back. It was oddly homely, of course, if you left out the fact that Kakashi was twice Naruto's age, Shisui was a supposed dead person alive and Itachi was a wanted criminal. He hadn't seen such a sight before however when he looked underneath the initial scene, he could see the love each one held for her, Itachi's being the only one that seemed to be platonic.

Itachi was the one who continued then, however, he didn't want to hear a word, but he was the one who lived through it, "The following day Shisui's body was recovered and the clan questioned me and I declined to know what had happened. The rest of my day was spent with the Hokage as I prepared myself to kill the clan. I was given the option for my identity to stay hidden, for no one to find out however there was a complication." Itachi looked at his in the eye, his mangekyo eyes gazing at him sadly, "I was unable to kill you, little brother and I told the Hokage that as well. As such, the Hokage said I would have to be branded a traitor and given another mission and in return, you would be protected."

He allowed the information to sink in and he was thankful for that. He found himself unable to take in the information.

Naruto, however, was able to shrink all the information for him, "Basically Itachi killed the clan because of a coup and he left the village to protect you. His mission was- you know what. We'll tell you at a later date. This was enough for you to take in as it is." She eyes were no longer shut and she looked to be back to usual. Slowly he nodded and felt he was tiered confusing him as he hadn't done anything today. "Well, I suppose we should all get going. I'm currently in the middle of looking for a place for us to move into. And no Kakashi, your apartment, whilst a good size for the two of us and your ninken, is not big enough for Shisui to live in as well, no matter how much you may currently dislike each other." She raised her brows as she got up, arms stretched above her, the three elder males getting up as well.

"That sure is one way to change the mood, hime." Spoke Itachi with a small smile on his face, shocking Sasuke slightly.

The trio lets out their own chuckles as Naruto reached out for Sasuke. Allowing her to hoist him up as she did so. Itachi took that time to henge into a civilian looking man and she hiraishined all of them to Kakashi's apartment.

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"Well, as much as I hate to admit it Naruto, given how crowded it's been here lately, we might just need to get a house." Kakashi begrudgingly admitted, causing Naruto to laugh.

Five hours after their discussion, Sasuke was laying down on the sofa, trying to fully absorb all of the information he had been told as a henged Itachi and Shisui joined Naruto and Kakashi in-house picking. In the end, they had agreed to build a house instead. Kakashi knew Captain Yamato and could ask a favor from him as long as the man had assistance, as well as a draft of the houses blueprint. Of course, they had yet to ask but it was highly likely he would say yes, especially since they intended to expose Danzo for all he had done.

Naruto was holding a sketchbook and some pencils as she tried to draft the house. They had agreed to build their home on top of the place where her parents had built their home as the house they had lived in had been destroyed by Kurama and no one had been able to build over it.

Of course, the village would throw a fit if they knew about Naruto planning to build a home where their beloved yondaime had once lived so she would have to request when she came out to be a girl sometime later that her heritage also is revealed. It was going to be a very busy month.

Blueprint a house, reveal her gender, reveal her parents, come out as a jinchuriki, bring Danzo's cruel actions to the light, bring Shisui back from the dead (officially speaking). She thought back to her long to-do list from when she first arrived and of course, many of those things would require years to ensure since many consisted of making sure people didn't die.

However, despite that, Itachi had ensured Orochimaru was unable to sink his fangs into Sasuke and she had fortified that by shoving teamwork and camaraderie in his face. She had also been able to stop Sakura's fangirling ways, with Shisui and Itachi's help they stopped Nagato but still had to work on Obito and soon she would be able to stop the old man from getting killed.

She was brought out of her thoughts by Sasuke suddenly sitting up on the sofa, eyes squinted in deep thought as if he had a great revelation, "So you mean to say this entire time I have blamed my older brother when in fact I should have been blaming that old war hawk?"

This question-like-statement caused her to sweatdrop as she remembered the last time he had gone to that conclusion. Placing the sketchbook and pencil down she replied, "In a way, yeah but you have to remember none of this would have happened if it hadn't been for the events of the- if it hadn't been for a certain duo of Uchiha planting the seeds of deception and hate into your clan. Please don't do anything rash Sasuke, we have a busy month ahead of us and we already have a sort of plan for Danzo." She raised her hands as she made her way slowly to him as if approaching a loose baby lion.

Sasuke scowled at her, "There's no time for that! He caused all of this-!"

"Our clan caused all of this, foolish little brother." All eyes went to Itachi who was sitting on one of the kitchen stools as he looked at Sasuke with blank black eyes, "Also, remember to key in the feelings of others. You will cause Naruto unnecessary grief if you rush into this headstrong. And another point you seem to have momentarily forgotten due to your anger, how would you propose to deal with him? You are a genin, and he is a war veteran. He has been around since before even our parents. Think of others first brother."

"You most certainly didn't think about others when you massacred our clan and made me watch for seventy-two hours over and over again." Years of hard training allowed Itachi to refrain from flinching however it was only by sheer willpower.

"Okay enough!" she yelled, not wanting the two brothers to fight, "Sasuke, you weren't there. You weren't the one who had to do the killing. Despite all the feuds your brother and father may have had in the end he loved Fugaku yet he still had to kill him. He had to kill everyone for the betterment of the village. In my eyes and the eyes of everyone in the room, there is no one more loyal to our village than Itachi. Despite the pain, Konoha has caused him he still left and severed his ties by the word of our aged kage. I doubt you would be able to do the same thing if you were in his position so lay off him." Naruto was sure her glare was deadly enough to cause even Jiraiya to flinch.

Sasuke grumbled under his breath as he laid back down, arm covering his eyes as he no doubts planned several ways of decapitating and causing several bouts of pain over the war hawk.

Sighing she turned to the others in the room. Itachi had gone back to doing his nails, Kakashi was reading Icha Icha and Shisui was sharpening all the things in the kitchen. He also seemed to be sharpening the bread-knives.

Deciding to leave them to it she looked to the calendar on the wall and noticed a red circle around tomorrows date, looking closely she saw it was the date she circled as the first time she met Jiraiya and managed to convince him to train her.

She froze at the thought. Despite having been back in time for several months now she had never allowed her mind to wonder over to Jiraiya. It always brought back pains and memories she'd rather forget.

Shaking her head she made her way around the boys and began cooking. Her mind, however, wasn't on the food and she managed to burn it, causing several pairs of concerned eyes to fall upon her when it had been taken out. She shook her head, a clear sign she wasn't going to talk and despite what each of them wanted, they listened to her and carried on.

Giving up on cooking she ordered some food from the Akimichi clan's restaurant and asked for it to be delivered to their location.

They had all eaten in silence however it wasn't awkward. The part that was awkward was the end of the night. Sasuke had gone home, Itachi had henged into a crow and gone to the forest of death leaving Naruto, Kakashi, and Shisui alone to decide sleeping arrangements.

Whilst the two of them discussed it she made quick work of teleporting the two bed in the apartment into the living room after having moved all the furniture to the walls. The two combined beds created one large bed and she sighed when she turned to the elder males before whistling. Once she had their attention she pointed to the bed she had 'made' and the three of them got dressed for bed.

It was even more awkward than she cared to admit however she bared with it and not long later she found herself asleep, thoughts of what she would be doing tomorrow clouding her dreams as she slept.

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 **A/N I hope you enjoyed it and don't forget to leave a comment down below! Till next time!**


	26. Chapter 26

**A/N- Sadly there's no omake since only one person suggested one on my AO3 account but that would be too hard to do, so I ended up just making the chapter longer. Goodness know how I managed.**

 **This chapter has been beta read by the lovely Ankaa Sage! Thank-you!**

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Naruto stood nervously behind the door as she heard laughter and talking outside. She had undone her henge and was clothed in her swimsuit waiting for either Sasuke or Sakura to call her out so she could show them she was a girl.

The rookie nine were all outside in the garden of the Uchiha compound where they were holding the pool party. Once she heard Sasuke call for her she let out a breath she had been holding and made her way out.

All eyes fell on her, Kiba and Shikamaru were smirking, Chouji was still eating and she had the sneaking suspicion that he had had his suspicions as well. Shino look the same as always, Hinata was confused and flustered, and Ino looked confused whilst slightly annoyed.

Sakura turned around and gave her a smile, "Hey Naruto! Did you know that Chouji can cook a really mean meaty lunch? It's to die for!"

She gave a smile with a nervous chuckle, "I knew his family could, but I didn't know you could cook Chouji." She smiled at the boy who was trying to hide his blush behind his packet of crisps.

"Okay, are we all gonna ignore the elephant in the room? Naruto why the hell are you henged into a girl? There's no need for your perversions to rub off on Sasuke." She sneered at the other blonde and Naruto sighed.

Sasuke took it from there, "I highly doubt any of Naruto's perversions will rub off on me. I mean, they haven't so far so I think I'm good. Secondly, she is a girl. Her male form was a henge."

One could easily see the struggle in Ino's eyes. She was warring between telling Sasuke off for siding with the blonde and fawning over him for being so cool.

"So Uchiha. How long have you known?" asked Kiba as he slung an arm over her shoulders, grazing her mark causing her to flinch involuntarily.

That went unnoticed by everyone as he replied, "Since forever. She was in the Uchiha compound a lot since she was engaged to my cousin."

This caused several pairs of eyes to turn towards her, causing her to look away, not used to their staring at her like that.

"Oooh do tell. Which one you stick-up-the-ass cousins was it exactly?" Kiba chuckled at his comment, Chouji and Hinata snorting at him.

"The one cousin who didn't have one actually. Shisui no shunshin." He stated as he forcibly removed Kiba's arm from around her, causing her to rub at the seal on her junction. It seemed to have heated slightly under his hand, perhaps due to the chakra he had been channeling.

"Why didn't you tell us before you were a girl Naruto?" asked Chouji, but she knew he knew the reason why.

Shrugging she sat between Sasuke and Sakura, "Well an orphan boy likely to suffer less than an orphan girl. Especially when said child is hated by the village so much."

"Care to elaborate." This time it was Shikamaru who spoke up, fully interested in the subject at hand.

"You guys know when my birthday is right?" when she received nods from everyone she continued, "Right, besides my birthday, what else happens that night?"

This caused several people to begin thinking harder, "We-well… th-the villagers… they celebrate the nine tails defeat, a-and some b-began raiding a certain district." Spoke a red-faced Hinata, hiding behind Shino slightly.

Nodding she gave the Hyuuga heiress a smile, "Right. The night of my birth signifies the night of the nine tails defeat. Now, what do the village civilians call me?"

This time everyone looked at each other nervously beside Kiba, "Well they call you the demon brat. Personally, I'd call you the queen of pranks since you can't be a king of pranks anymore."

"Right… now put all that together."

"The nine tails was killed. The yondaime killed it." Spoke Ino, confused where the conversation was going.

"No he wasn't and he takes offense that people think he can be killed that easily." She replied instinctually however refrained from cringing at her words. "And before you ask anything, the yondaime sealed the nine tails inside of me."

It was after that that everyone seemed to lose it. There was shouting, splashing, laughing and the distinct sound of squealing. She couldn't make out which sounds belonged to which people however it made her feel a little better to see Shino hadn't reacted nearly as colorfully as the others had.

It took twenty minutes before they all calmed down long enough to question her and it lasted another twenty minutes. It would have lasted longer had Kakashi not arrived and began growling at everyone, signaling he wanted Naruto to come with him as they left to get her ready to meet Jiraiya.

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She found her godfather where he could usually be found; the hot spring. Although he could also be found in the red light district for some rundown restaurant where he could meet his spy network.

He was sitting as he usually did, notebook in hand, perverted giggles, and a faint blush on his face. Despite her annoyance over his perversions, she couldn't help the smile that broke out on her face. Jiraiya would always be Jiraiya no matter what.

Making her way over to him, she covered his mouth as she spoke quietly, "Sorry. I need to talk to you. Also if you don't stop your research to talk to me, I'm sure dad would be pretty furious."

In retaliation, the perverted sage shunshined behind her in silence, "And do I know you brat?"

Turning around she raised a brow, "Of course. I'm your godchild, your student's child, and the jinchuriki of the nine tails. Should I go on?"

Jiraiya simply looked back at her with irritated eyes, "Look kid. I don't have time for your games. I don't know who you are, but I know my student didn't-"

"Minato Namikaze married Kushina Uzumaki. The night of my birth she was attacked at the nine tails ripped out of her by an unknown assailant who controlled the nine tails and forced him to attack the people. My dad used the shiki-fuin to seal half the nine tails within me and he kept the other half. Right now, I've merged both halves. I've met my father and my mother within my seal. So after that, do you still deny me as your family?"

She didn't receive a reply, instead, she merely got a hand on her shoulder before finding herself taken away to.

 _'Did he just reverse summon us to Mount Myoboku?!'_

"Okay kid. I want to know all the details of what you know, I also get the feeling that's not all you've gotta tell Me," spoke Jiraiya as he took a seat on a rock across her before she dropped the henge and took a similar sitting. She hadn't noticed before, but she must have adopted this way of sitting because of him.

"Right. You're not going to believe me on this but I've been sent from the future to the past." She paused, assuming he would say something or laugh it off however he was in business mode and would do no such thing. Nodding to herself she continued, "Right. Um, let's start with Ame. Nagato and Konan are alive however Yahiko was killed roughly the year the third war began by Hanzo because Danzo said the organization they had established, Akatsuki, was evil. Skip a few years to Kannabi Bridge. Obito Uchiha survived and Madara Uchiha took him in and with the help of Zetsu, he brainwashed him into becoming evil and hell-bent on sending the world into a giant genjutsu. Obito was against it at first, however, he reconsidered the night he saw Kakashi kill Rin."

"Kakashi?" he raised a brow to her, a glint in his eye that made her want to keep her lover hidden under five blanks and six houses. And preferably in another nation.

"Yeah, as in dad's only living and sane student."

"Kakashi Hatake is hardly who I would call 'sane'."

"Rich coming from a perverted sage like you." Shaking her head she continued, "Time skipping again, Akatsuki now hunts down bijuu but you already know that. Now onto my time. My first chunin exam was ruined by Orochimaru attacking the village, putting a cursed mark on Sasuke Uchiha and killing the sandaime. Sorry I missed something. The Uchiha massacre was due to a coup they had planned and Itachi was ordered kill his clan. I'll go into detail later."

The rest of the conversation consisted of her telling him everything about her life, conveniently leaving out the parts bout Kakashi and her and it wasn't long till she had finished talking. He looked at her, got up and placed a hand on her head, ruffling her long hair, "I'm proud to have you as my goddaughter."

Those words caused her eyes to go wide as they filled with tears. The village had been proud of her as their savior, Tsunade obaa-chan had been proud of her as her successor and Kakashi had been proud of her in general. However, the only living family that had taken care of her had just told him he was proud of her. He was proud of her despite all her flaws, despite her weaknesses and despite her self-loathing.

She recognized this feeling, it was the same feeling she had when her father and mother had shown their pride in her as well. However, she felt a pang in her chest at the memory of Jiraiya being dead but she refused to allow it to bring her down.

Unbeknownst to her, she had lurched forward and latched onto his hiori and cried.

Not long later she had stopped crying, eyes red and puffy as she henged into her male form and they reversed summoned back to Konoha.

Which all led to the current situation. She had instinctually asked if he wanted to come over to her home for a late lunch, to which he immediately agreed. She hadn't noticed her mark was visible so when they arrived at Kakashi's apartment she hadn't been expecting the old pervert to attack Kakashi with his hair.

It had taken her a total of seventy-six seconds to get them apart, herself being in front of Kakashi whose Sharingan eye was spinning in its socket. Promptly she smacked the back of the sennin's head and told him to behave.

So here she was; between her lover and fiancé as they sat across her godfather. Sensei to the sensei of her lover who was twice her current age.

Chuckling nervously she asked Kakashi to help her in the kitchen to prepare some food and he hastily agreed to help, leaving Shisui and Jiraiya to play a round of shogi.

During lunch, Jiraiya had been staring holes into Kakashi's head and after lunch, it became worse with the sudden appearance of Itachi who he tried to kill however was stopped by her tails. They then promptly informed him that his inside source was Itachi and he had grumbled about being left out of the loop by his old man of a sensei who needed to retire and hand down the seat to a worthy successor.

Ignoring his comments, the three other males helped her with cleaning before Itachi bid them farewell in order to return to Kisame who was outside the village as he 'scoped' the area.

It had been somewhat peaceful after that as Naruto and Jiraiya had left in order for her to sign the summoning contract again. Once having done so, just to mess with everyone, she summoned Lord Fukasaku causing the old toad to whack her over the head with his staff.

The rest of the day had gone by without event as Jiraiya left to do some 'research' as she debated whether it was worth going to the Hokage and decided against it, instead choosing to go to where she knew the sand siblings were and seeing them.

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Sakura was out of place. She was sitting on the bridge where team 7 usually met up, however, Naruto was running very late and this left herself and Sasuke to deal with the stifling atmosphere surrounding Kakashi-sensei and Shisui.

The two weren't outright glaring at each other. In fact, Kakashi sensei was reading Icha Icha as usual and Shisui was reading a scroll on what seemed to a wind jutsu. She found it odd that an Uchiha was reading something other than a fire jutsu but was further confused as to why there was an Uzumaki swirl.

"Do you have to read that all day?" asked Shisui, eyes peeled on his scroll but it was clear he was talking to Kakashi sensei.

Sakura and Sasuke both took a step back unconsciously as they looked on, "Hmm, Maa maa, you don't see me reading this at my home now do you?"

"Well, you and I both know Naruto would kill you if you read that at home as well."

"And if she doesn't have a problem with me reading this in public then I don't think you have any room to complain."

"Do you believe she likes it when you read that crap?"

"Like is a strong word. But she really doesn't have any room to speak against them either considering she's read the whole series as well."

This caused a reaction from the remaining three, each of them spluttering with wide eyes as they stared at Kakashi who simply gave them an eye smile before turning around, "Welcome back Naruto. What seems to have kept you?"

She raised a brow at them before shrugging and giving him a peck on his cheek before moving over to where Shisui was sat and gave him one as well. "Nothing really. Gamabunta was insisting I go to the sandaime and tell him to make the announcement of my gender within the next few days. I wasn't planning on even asking him for a few days as well."

"Never mind why! Naruto, have you really read the Icha Icha series?" asked Shisui, the same question the other two wanted to ask as well.

Naruto looked on confused, "Well yeah, Jiraiya is my godfather after all so it makes sense that I've read them. That, and it's an interesting read. Besides all the porn in it, there's an actual storyline. From what I get, the series is basically Jiraiya's fantasy world where he and Lady Tsunade get together and blah blah blah. If you overlook that small detail, it's an amazing series."

No one chose to give a comment after that, instead favoring to get on with the meeting. Kakashi stating he would train Sasuke for the final rounds and Naruto would train with Jiraiya. Once the exam was over they would return to normal.

If you could call their predicament normal.

Sakura looked to Sasuke as they all parted ways after Shisui transformed into a hawk before taking to the sky.

The two of them were headed in the general direction of where they had first become a team when Sasuke asked for them to stop.

"Sakura," he didn't say anything for another thirty seconds causing her to feel unease. Sasuke wasn't one for very many words but he usually knew what he wanted to say before speaking. "I know that you like me, a lot. And despite the fact that you've become a better kunoichi, despite the fact you're a great team member I can't see you as anything other than a close teammate and friend."

Sakura blinked. And again. Then she shook her head and tapped her ears thinking she may have just heard things however the look he was giving her made her aware she hadn't. Placing her hands on her lap she shrouded her eyes with her hair as she looked down, "I'm sorry if this upsets you. I had tried. I tried to see you as more so that's why I've been spending time with you but when I overheard you talking to Ino I realized I didn't like you like that and leading you on like I have so far is cruel."

He bowed her head to her causing her to look up in shock before shaking her head, "No. I knew you didn't like me from the start and you've made that clear to everyone since day one, but I still let my feelings get to me. This won't affect our team will it?"

Sasuke let out a short mirthless laugh, "Considering the love triangle Naruto's got going on, any drama we've got cooking will seem pretty insignificant. That and she told me some confidential secrets. I'd tell you but they're not exactly my secrets to share." She gave a nod of understanding as they once again began to walk around the village.

Sakura had once believed that if she were to ever be dumped or outright rejected by Sasuke she would be far sadder than she felt now. As it stood, she felt like something had been removed from her shoulders and made her feel rejuvenated.

Smiling to herself she made a plan of what to do during the next month.


	27. Chapter 27

**A/N I have a perfectly good explanation. Kinda. So I delayed writing the chapter till like sometime last week when I started to update my other stories and I sent it to my Beta, Ankaa Sage who has done this chapter, btw. So a day or so later she sent it back and I noticed it was the same as the previous chapter because yours truly sent her the wrong one. So I sent her the right one and she beta'd it for me. Thank-you Ankaa Sage! Round of applause for her ladies, gentlemen and other gendered people! (I'm not trying to be rude nor offensive in that last comment.)**

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Time skip of two and a half weeks

Naruto sat crossed legged in front of the toad sannin as Pa spoke to him. Jiraiya had just left Mount Myoboku to inform the sandaime of her latest achievement. She had managed to master her sage mode. She already knew how to do it and had good chakra control thanks to all the lessons Kakashi insisted team 7 do.

She shook her head, this was no time to think about what was going on in Konoha. Her head had been in the gutter for a long time now and she had to focus on what mattered. Of course, that didn't mean she didn't visit them whenever she could.

She had spent two weeks here and the other half sending messages with clones to the other villages as she had been doing for the past several months. So far the only ones who had given her a proper response were the Kazekage and Mizukage. The Raikage and Tsuchikage, however, were being stubborn however she understood the animosity between the villages. The fact that they even bothered to reply to her at all was helpful enough.

At least she was getting proper responses from their jinchuuriki, after months of trying she finally managed to get a positive response from everyone. They had all agreed to stay on alert and try locating Akatsuki whilst trying to convince their kage to listen to reason.

Iwa was going to be the hardest to convince. Onoki hardly ever spoke to his jinchuriki and when he did it, it wasn't about which villages to unite with. As for A, she hoped that Killer B could persuade him otherwise she was in big trouble.

She had also received a ring from Ame, allowing her to communicate with whoever she wanted in Akatsuki and they would simply believe she was an informant of the organization.

Nagato had given the word that Obito was either playing along or believing he and Konan had not changed at all and she was thankful. The last thing she wanted was any more deaths.

Whilst Naruto hated violence she knew it was going to be necessary once again. No doubt they were going to have to fight Akatsuki, however, she intended to do it either with the help of the other nations or alone. Orochimaru had been dealt with by Itachi, Nagato and Konan were unlikely to betray them and Itachi was already on their side.

It would be a show of good will to go to the other nations for assistance in taking down the organization, even if the assistance came from their jinchuuriki.

A few more weeks and Suna would have signed a new contract with Konoha and she could request the help of Lady Chiyo to take down Sasori. However, she would need the help of Lady Tsunade to work around Sasori's poisons. Meaning someone was going to have to be poisoned and she will damn well make sure no one besides her becomes the test subject.

She shook her head when she received a hit on it from Pa's stick and made her way outside to get some fresh air after bowing out.

The air in Mount Myoboku was clean and fresh, a lot different to the realm where humans stayed. There was no pollution here as everyone cared a lot about nature, more so than other summons did.

She sat crossed legged near the fountain and entered her mindscape. A meeting of the nine bijuu had been held without their jinchuriki's presence within her mind whilst she had been talking to the Ogama sannin and had apparently already finished.

Looking over to Kurama she could see he looked much tired. _'Why are you so tired Kurama? I haven't been using your chakra have I?'_ she asked confused and concerned. She had never seen the bijuu like this but then it clicked. _'Your siblings were annoying you weren't they?'_ she raised a brow and released a fit of giggles when she received a nod in return.

 _'Well besides mentally and apparently physically draining you, what did you guys talk about?'_

It took him a few seconds to reply, but when he did Naruto could feel his exhaustion, _'We mostly discussed our hosts. Each of the nations will have to ally themselves with at least Killer B in order for the jinchuriki to have complete unity with my siblings.'_

She nodded her head in understanding. It wasn't going to be easy, A was as stubborn as a mule but there are always cracks in a person's defense where they could access through. Killer B would side with her… probably, depending on how she played her cards that is.

 _'Did you discuss anything else? Anything you want to tell me, if not I'll let you rest. I know how tiring they can all be…'_

It took him nearly a minute to reply with a no so she nodded and left him in peace. There wasn't much she could do to help him rest beside letting him sleep in peace, as she opened her eyes she was greeted by Kakashi crouched in front of her. She furrowed her brows, confused why he was here. It had to be serious, those who hadn't signed the toad summoning contract weren't allowed up on their mountain unless it was serious.

"What's up?" she asked when he nor Jiraiya, who was standing not far from them, had said anything.

They both looked at each other uncertainly, causing dread to sit on her stomach. Had something happened whilst she'd been training?

"It's nothing bad. No one's hurt but…" Jiraiya faded off, clearly unsure how to word his next statement.

"But," she waved her hands in a circle as she raised both her brows, trying to get at least one of them to continue what he was saying.

"The sandaime was saying that after this chunin exam is over, he wants to stand down as Hokage." Kakashi finished, looking out of place.

It took her a moment to figure out why "You two were both nominated weren't you?" she raised a brow at them and resisted laughing when they nodded.

She leaned back, holding herself up with her right hand, "I don't see what's so wrong with that. In my own time Ero-sennin had been chosen however he chose to bring Grandma Tsunade to become Hokage. Why don't we just do that? It shouldn't be hard tracking her down. I've got a clone following her every movement so right now she should be Ishigakure."

"What the hell is Tsunade-hime doing so close to Iwa?!" yelled Jiraiya. His eyes had widened significantly as he looked at her. His worry was understandable, whilst Tsunade hadn't taken part during the third war, she was still the honorable granddaughter of the shodaime Hokage and shouldn't be too close to enemy lines.

"Oh you know, the usual. Drinking, gambling and all that crap 'tebayo." She nodded earnestly as if she was debriefing them about an all-important mission.

"Yes well." Kakashi cleared his throat as he sat down properly, "Well, Lord Jiraiya tried suggesting Lady Tsunade however the council members declined instantly."

"Did they give a reason?" she asked, confused why they would refuse her even though she had been given the title of godaime last time.

"Old man Homura and Koharu-sensei said she had spent far too long outside of the village to understand what the sandiame had been doing up until now and if she was made kage, she would not be fully informed of what had been going on during the past few years."

Naruto nodded, they were all valid reasons. Last time Tsunade had been named Hokage under extenuating circumstances however now they were electing someone.

Naruto shrugged and looked at Kakashi, "You're only a year or two older than when my dad had been named Hokage. I don't see what's so bad about you being nominated. The job isn't that hard as long as you have someone competent by your side. When I was Rokudaime I had Shikamaru by my side and he was a great help. I also had you and Sasuke on my side to help me out whenever I needed it. You'd make a great kage, Kakashi."

"And what qualities do you think I have that even allows me to qualify for becoming Hokage?" he asked, clearly irritated Naruto wasn't on his side of things.

"You're kind and understanding however you hardly allow emotions to get in the way of the job. You value your friends and comrades, however, you tend to keep them at an arms distance from what happened when you first became a jonin. You're known across the five elemental nations and you're feared. You're good with diplomacy, having been ANBU for so long you've seen the Hokage in action. Besides, you're the only option that's reasonable."

Kakashi didn't miss a beat in his reply, "What about you?"

Naruto had to laugh at that, "Me? The village doesn't trust me. I've kept being a girl from them for so many years and I hold the nine tails. Everyone hates the nine tails, even if the sandaime has told everyone the truth about my lineage it doesn't remove the seed of doubt that's been growing inside of the older generation's hearts for years."

"You were nominated to Rokudaime. If they didn't trust you how did you manage to become Hokage?" asked Jiraiya, finally over his shock.

"Well, the other four Kage wanted me to have the seat. I was a figurehead you could say. Or trophy, if you prefer. Left dangling under the noses of the other nations, showing them one of the heirs of the rikudo-sennin as the other protects her, whilst they could never get their hands on me. I did the best I could as Hokage, and I like to think I did the best I could.

"However at the end of the day, I was like Grandma Tsunade. We were both temperamental however I was a lot more capable of holding back my emotions than she had been. The title of Hokage was always something I wanted, however, I knew I wasn't made for it. I was made for the darker parts of our work."

"ANBU." Spoke Jiraiya in understanding. Naruto guessed he had overheard her sleep talking or had entered her mind however the latter wasn't likely.

"But you were never in ANBU?" Kakashi asked more than stated, looking at the two of them.

Naruto shook her head as she closed her eyes, "I was in ANBU for a few years. The promotion was kept secret, the only ones who knew were Jiraiya, Tsunade, ANBU commander and Shikamaru. Of course, you knew but you never commented. You had seen the ANBU tattoo on my arm enough times, however, I usually keep my arms covered and if I didn't then I'd have that particular part covered with a band that had the Uzumaki swirl on it."

No one said anything for a few minutes however Kakashi wasn't able to hold it in for long, "Why was your promotion a secret?"

"I had dual citizenship within Konoha and Suna. I was named a chunin and jonin by Suna but not Konoha, however, I was named ANBU after Ero-sennin was killed. The nomination was mostly under Suna jurisdiction, however, Granny pulled strings to make use of me."

"Why did she go through all the trouble?" asked Pa who had suddenly appeared however no one commented on that little fact.

"I was the jinchuriki to the nine tails. I had allies across the five nations and I was to undergo special training to make me even more powerful. Given my past, I had a good understanding and grasp of the darkness needed for ANBU and was given the promotion. I wasn't given many missions and whenever I had to go on missions I was to leave a blood clone behind to do whatever I needed to do.

"For example when Itachi had been killed by Sasuke I was to collect his body as kitsune, however, Naruto Uzumaki was dispatched to go and get Sasuke. Of course, I hadn't planned on Zetsu having already taken his eyes, making my life harder since I had to sneak around the bastard to get Itachi back. So like I said, ANBU suits me a lot more than the Hokage seat does. Besides, I don't like being a trophy. Yes, I had the love and trust of the majority of the people however others only saw me as a prize."

No one had anything to say to that so she decided to lighten the mood. She got up and stretched, giving a bright smile to the three of them and spoke, "Enough depressing crap dattebayo! I came here to train! What else can I train with hmm? Maybe the bijuu-dama?" she placed a finger under her chin and tilted her head. She had spent less time that she had thought she would sue to master sage mode and now had nothing to do.

"Absolutely not. I refuse to allow you to use such a dangerous and destructible jutsu anywhere near Mount Myoboku!" yelled Fukasaku as he hit her with his staff causing her to sigh.

Kakashi followed her lead in sighing as he gave her a kiss on the cheek, "I've got to get back to Konoha. Someone will notice my disappearance during the day. One that goes by the name of Shisui Uchiha." He let out a low groan as he nipped at her mark.

Her shoulders lost some tension that had gathered and she sensed everyone leaves them alone for a bit. "Since everyone has left us alone, why don't we go for a walk around the mountain? Or I can teleport us to the top and we can just sit for a bit."

"What about Shisui?"

"He isn't welcome here on Mount Myoboku. He's a falcon and hawk summoner, both of which eat toads."

"I see," he had yet to release himself from the crook of her neck and had fully removed his mask, hoisting her up as he shunshined them to the top of the closest peak.

"You've been here before I take it?" she asked as she leaned against his back between his legs.

He didn't give her an answer straight away and when he did, it was barely more than a whisper in her ear, "Minato sensei bought team Minato here to introduce us to the toads we would be seeing often. If we ever saw any particular toad we would know why and what to do."

Naruto nodded. It was cleaver. Sending a specific toad for a specific job. A bit like the hawk was used for the chunin exams.

They sat in silence for what seemed like a half hour before she looked at him, "How are you and Shisui whenever I'm not around?"

"Maa, well, we don't get along like you and Sasuke, however, we get along enough to live together."

She nodded her head once again. "You- both of you can tell me anything. Whether it's about each other, about others or about me, please just tell me. I can't help if I don't know what's wrong."

She could feel him hesitate before he slouched his shoulders, "Well, Shisui doesn't like eggplant so I was wondering if that meant we weren't going to have eggplant in food anymore."

She didn't give an immediate reply however when he did it was after having calmed down from laughing too hard. Of all the things Kakashi could have said that wasn't something she had expected him to say.

"I- why would… koi. If you want eggplant, I'll make you eggplant and I'll make another dish for everyone else. Ask me to make anything and I will. I can't guarantee everything will taste delicious but I can try my damn hardest. I love cooking for people. Such a mundane thing that manages to make everyone happy." She shrugged and suddenly felt tired.

She hadn't been getting much sleep since arriving in the past. Constantly leaving the village every other night, sending letters to the kage, having mental meetings with the bijuu and jinchuriki plus everything else that had happened was finally taking a toll on her yet she had taken worse. She was not yet undone.


	28. Chapter 28

**A/N I really need to work on my time keeping. It's been a whole goddamn month and I am so sorry. Work got in the way again as an apology I've made this chapter a bit longer- cough 2000 words longer cough- and I hope you enjoy it** **because Ankaa Sage beta read it. bless her soul.**

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Naruto sighed as she sank into the sofa of her old apartment. She had arrived in Konoha ten minutes ago, however, no one besides Shisui, Kakashi and Jiraiya knew and they would be keeping it a secret so she could catch up on rest.

There were three days till the exams so she had plenty of time to relax and spend time with the boys, however, Kakashi had been summoned to the Hokage office for further discussions.

She left a clone to watch the meeting with the telescoping technique, she would know what happened during the mission when it dispelled.

She sighed again as she sunk deeper into the sofa, looking over when she sensed Shisui arriving with an arched brow. She didn't focus on his face, however, and instead chose to pay attention to his stiff shoulders. She furrowed her brows, "Anata, come here."

He came without question and was about to sit in front of her but she got up and said, "Take off your shirt and lay on your stomach. I'll be just a minute."

She left to go to her bedroom before he could comment and when she returned with a bottle of oil she had bought from Wave country and joined a shirtless Shisui.

She moved to lay the sofa flat-like bed before straddling his back she lathered her hands with oil and as she was rubbing then he asked, "What are you doing?"

"Hmm, simple really. You look a bit tense so I thought I'd give you a back massage." She replied distractedly as she began to work on his back.

He was pale like all Uchihas and had small white-silver scars on his back, however, there were also darker thicker scars on his back. Once she made her way to his shoulders she pressed harder and he let out a groan and she suppressed a chuckle, it was always fun to disarm an Uchiha.

She carried and working on the knots in his shoulder and was pleased when she felt the knots loosening, "Care to tell me what's got you all tight?" she asked as she pressed a little harder at the base of his neck, causing him to moan louder this time.

"I haven't slept much and have been training with Itachi a lot."

She frowned, "Somehow I doubt that's the reason."

He chuckled humorlessly, "No it isn't. Itachi and I were discussing something and we had a disagreement. Then we had this issue with Obito that still needs to be sorted out. Then Danzo. And the Hokage business as well. You know, Kakashi being nominated and all that."

Her frown went deeper the same as her hands, "We'll get back to the Itachi thing later. Obito I understand as well as Danzo but why does Kakashi being nominated bother you?"

"I don't question the sandaime's judgment on this. Kakashi, as much as it annoys me to admit- he's good at his job. But what's with the sudden need to get Hiruzen off the seat of the Hokage?"

"I'd be lying if I said I hadn't thought about that as well. The sandaime, whilst he did complain about being too old, never wanted to hand over the seat." she groaned as she thought about it. Her headache was coming back and she didn't want anything to do with it.

"How about we worry about that later? I don't want to think about the Hokage seat anytime soon."

She finished doing his back and allowed him to move onto his back, towel over the back of the sofa so he wouldn't get any oil on it. "Well how about Danzo then-" she cut him off with a way she knew would be effective.

She kissed his neck.

He froze and shut up instantaneously as she slowly made her way across his neck. She could feel his escalating pulse against her lips as she kissed her way up to the base of his throat and gave it a light bite, sucking on the flesh lightly and leaving a mark that would take a few days to fade. She made her way up and gave him a proper kiss before sitting up, smirking at the flustered Uchiha below her.

He gave her a half-lidded glare, "What was that for?" he tried to sound irritated however his body said otherwise causing her to chuckle.

"I just got home. I don't want to talk about anything other than my bed. I don't mind listening to you talk as long as it's not stressful. I'm getting enough stress from Han and Roshi." She groaned as she raised her hands to remove the kink in her neck.

"Fair enough." he faded off and looked as if he was thinking hard about something. Likely how to break something to her which she knew she wasn't going to like.

"I know that look. That look means I'm not gonna like something, but I've gotta hear about it don't I 'tebayo?" She ended with a whine, hunching her shoulders forward inadvertently giving his a clear view of her chest.

His face flushed pink as she tried not to stare, "Um well uh… it's…" he gulped and she sighed.

"If it's bothering you, I don't mind hearing you out, even though I'd prefer to be sleeping right now." She laid over him, face resting on her hands as he wrapped an arm around her as well. She could feel his warmth through her clothes and hear his heartbeat, it made her happy and a small smile found its way across her lips.

"How do you intend to bring me back from the dead?" he asked at last and she furrowed her brows.

"I was sure I said something about this before, didn't I?" she asked confused. When she shook his head, no, she carried on, "Well, you can suddenly burst into the Hokage office and say where you have been and what you've been doing."

He raised a brow at her, "You want me to tell the sandaime that I've been in Konoha bonding with Kakashi?"

She chuckled at the question, "I don't see why not. We had to wait for the right time to announce your sudden return, why not say you were in hiding from Danzo because he took your eye and Orochimaru took you after."

"I follow most of that, however, the Hokage knows Itachi has Orochimaru right now."

"Exactly. It sort of coincides with when he got Orochimaru. We can say he found you in the snake's lab and released you then he took care of Orochimaru."

There was a sudden breeze that caused his curly hair to flutter and cover his eyes so he swiped it away, "Okay, but how do we get Orochimaru to agree to this cover story?"

She nibbled on her bottom lip as she thought for a moment, "I can make a memory altering seal where he is given a set of memories- false obviously- and have him believe they're his."

He thought about it for a moment and nodded, "That's not a bad idea, under the presumption you can make such a seal."

She knew he wasn't underestimating her abilities however a seal of that magnitude would need significant research, "I'll get cracking on that seal after lunch with a bunch of shadow-clones. I'll even get ero-sennin to help, maybe even ask him to get my dad's journal with all his seals inside it." she thought about the different seal arrays that could be in her father's journal. In her time she had never seen it, the Namizake and Uzumaki home had been destroyed along with most of the village in Pein's attack and she had never been given it before that either.

"Okay. I burst into the Hokage's office once the pieces are set and we show Danzo's true colors which hopefully get him executed."

"Oh, he will be executed. There are laws over the safety of kekkei-genkai here in Konoha and he broke the law when he stole those Sharingan's, even if the Uchiha's were dead at the time. He'll likely receive a trial for show and be executed, dattebayo." She nodded solemnly, a dangerous glint in her eyes as she thought of the various different ways she would have had Danzo executed.

"I do believe at the time Kakashi will be in the seat of Hokage so is there any point to this whole charade?" he asked.

"Of course. There will be ANBU in the room and we'll add a bit flare to it and have ero-sennin there as well."

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He chuckled at her antics, she seemed to be enjoying this a little too much.

Kakashi refrained from skewering the man in front of him.

Danzo was the root of all problems in Konoha and he would be glad when the man was taken care of. **(A/N pun intended)**

"Kakashi Hatake is a formidable ally and foe and as we have seen a competent jonin instructor, however, he mated with one of his students. That should be brought to the attention of the council." He spoke to all the clan leaders.

"What are you annoyed about Danzo? The fact that Kakashi mated our jinchuriki or the fact he did it without our knowing?" asked Inoichi who stared impassively at the war hawk.

Danzo didn't take his bait, "First of all, everyone was kept away from the jinchuriki so no one would keep the power h-she held to themselves, and secondly, she is thirteen-years-old and a genin. If he wished to mate, he should have done it with someone older who will not be on the frontlines of any attacks."

Kakashi was certain that if anyone was looking at him, they would see how he darkened at the words. He knew it was a fact, Naruto was a jinchuriki and had a deadly arsenal of jutsu's, of course, she would be in the frontlines, and the rest of Team seven would be on the frontlines as well. Course did not mean he had to like it.

"And why would he not wish to be bonded with the daughter of his late sensei?" asked the sandaime after taking a puff of his pipe.

Danzo thankfully had no immediate reply but Kakashi knew internally he was cursing him, a feeling he reciprocated.

"There is no downside to Kakashi being with her, it would solidify his claim to the seat of kage. He was the student of the yondaime and lover to his daughter who is also our jinchuriki. He does not require the usual kage training as he spent years in ANBU and as such has spent significant time with the sandaime in office. He has a Sharingan he can use and is known throughout the five nations. I see no one more suited for the title of Godaime Hokage." Spoke Shikaku, surprising everyone as no one had called out for Nara's opinion which they usually had to do to get his attention.

"His social skills are abysmal," replied Danzo.

'Wow, he must be running out of ideas if he's reaching that far.' Musing Naruto in his head and thanks to years of shinobi training, he didn't show his shock.

"Something that will easily be overcome given the fact he is with Naruto Uzumaki who is very sociable," Chouza replied calmly giving his support right behind Shikaku's statement.

"In the end, Danzo, Kakashi Hatake has more qualifications for the seat of Godaime and he has given his consent. He will be announced as my successor after the final rounds of the chunin exam. Dismissed." Spoke the sandaime with finality in his voice and looked Kakashi in the eye, saying for him to leave as well.

Kakashi left via shunshin to Naruto's apartment knowing she was there and was greeted by the sight of Naruto and Shisui cooking. She paused when she received the information her shadow clone gave her and continued, "We're making curry and rice since I'm in a lazy mood. Is that alright with you?" she asked as she turned around, a ladle in her right hand and a bright smile on her face.

He pulled down his mask and nodded, "Maa I don't see why not." He gave her a lazy smile and a two finger salute to Shisui who returned the gesture. Kakashi's eyebrows reached his hairline as he looked at the Uchiha's neck and he refrained from smiling, "I see the two of you were having some fun during my torture with the council." He gave a small pout which he wasn't able to keep off his face causing the two of them to chuckle.

"Try being Hokage for five years. Onoki has a tendency to whine like an academy brat and the raikage was no better. Then again," she had a thoughtful look on her face, and all attention was on her, "Mei, the mizukage, had a tendency to want to come to Konoha to find a husband mostly you Kakashi or Iruka-sensei. Of course, you often received A or B rank missions at the time so you were never in Konoha."

Shisui stared at her, mildly scandalized, "Isn't that an abuse of power hime?"

She laughed at that, "No. Someone needed to take the mission and Kakashi was always suited for the job. It was merely her continuous bad luck your missions happened to coincide when she was due to arrive." She had a look of pure innocence on her face at the two males simply sighed before shaking their heads.

Her eyes twinkled and he knew he wasn't going to like what she said next, "In any event Shisui. What do you think we should do? Before us stands the Godaime Hokage who will be announced after the final rounds of the chunin exams."

Kakashi took a step back when he looked to the Uchiha whose eyes were also twinkling, "Maa maa you two wouldn't do anything to little old me now would you?" he asked, however, he already knew the answer.

They were messing with him. He hoped.

"About the Hokage seat when he brings Shisui back from the dead would you mind being my advisor?" he asked, partly to distract them and partly because he meant it.

This caused both of their twinkling eyes to recede as they processed what he had said. "You want me as an advisor?" asked Shisui, confusion thickly on his face as he looked to the elder male.

Kakashi gave a small tentative smile as he scratched the back of his head, "Well, I need someone I trust as an advisor. I don't trust the current council, I can't ask Gai since he is vocal and can't keep his cool all the time, he can sometimes. Asuma is one of the fire daimyo guards, Kurenai I don't know well enough, and Anko is a psycho. Tenzo is out of the question." He hastily added, he could swear the man had a small crush on him however never voiced his opinion on the matter. "And Naruto is apparently too young to take up the position, and she isn't a candidate, she's a front-liner."

Naruto shrugged as she turned off the gas, "He has a point Shisui. Kakashi needs to trust whoever will be advising him to have his back, think of it as quality bonding time. And you'll stay away from any fighting as well."

She took out three plates and began to dish out their servings and both of them took their seats. "You both have valid points." Conceded Shisui, "However, can I think it over?" he asked.

"Of course. Take your time." Replied Kakashi and they all dug into their meals, the boys moaning as they took their first bite.

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 **(A/N because I'm a lazy ass, I'm not gonna do the chunin final round and just move onto the promotions.)**

Hiruzen sat in his usual seat behind the Hokage desk as he gazed at all the contestants, those that passed and those that failed as well.

This year had been a tough decision, everyone showed traits of becoming chunin and just this once he would give those who would not pass tips on what they needed to improve on.

"Those of you who pass are as follows." He raised the scroll the kazekage had handed to him and began to read, "From Konoha; Shikamaru Nara of Team 10, Sasuke Uchiha of Team 7, Neji Hyuuga of Team 9 and Naruto Uzumaki of Team 7. From Suna; Temari no Subaku of Team Baki and Gaara no Subaku of Team Baki. We must congratulate all of you, this is the most we have ever had to become chunin in all my years of Hokage and we believe it is well deserved." He padded off and gave a small spike of chakra, hinting for Rasa to continue.

"He is correct. Each of you, during all the chunin exam rounds, have shown courage, teamwork, and competency needed to become a chunin. We wish you the best of luck for your future." Rasa stopped and spiked his chakra, hinting for Kakashi to continue.

"Those of you who did not pass shouldn't be upset. Not many people pass in their first time and those that did pass it was a tough decision to be made. However, Chouji Akimichi and Rock Lee, we all believe you will make wonderful chunin, all you need is to improve in certain areas. Chouji, you need to work on your taijutsu, should a complication arise during a mission where you cannot use chakra, and you will be at a loss."

He waited for him to nod and turned to look at Lee, "Rock Lee, you are an expert in taijutsu and we cannot expect you to do ninjutsu so we recommend you work on the other areas a bit more. You know and are capable of doing the basics but you need more than the basics to become chunin." After receiving a loud understanding he too spiked his chakra for the sandaime to continue.

The sandaime gestured for them to take their chunin vests from Suna and Konoha before allowing them to leave, all expect team 7, the yondaime kazekage leaving with them as well.

"As the two of you are aware, Kakashi Hatake is now Hokage and can no longer perform the duties of a jonin instructor. However, the two of you are already chunin so there will be no problem there, however, your third teammate will need to become accustomed to being on another team for her next exam. I will leave that decision to the four of you." He received nods from the three of them and continued, "Naruto this is where it becomes complicated. You are bonded with Kakashi and-"

Naruto interrupted him, "We have discussed this at our home, Jiji. Kakashi will not be changing his behavior towards me nor the missions I will be going on for our bond. I am Konoha's jinchuriki and we are both aware of what is required of me." she spoke with a hardened gaze and if you weren't looking, one would miss the subtle tensing of Kakashi, however, the professor saw, yet did not comment on it.

"As long as you are aware. Kakashi, report for duty early tomorrow. Naruto, I'll leave you to make sure he's here on time." Naruto nodded and gave a serious look to the sandaime and a pointed stare to the godaime who simply chuckled and scratched the back of his neck.

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"Whether you like it or not, you have to get out of bed." Spoke an irritated Naruto, hands on her hip as she tried getting Kakashi out of the bed and off to the office. Shisui- the little troublemaker- was standing in the corner of the room watching them with humor clear on his face.

"I don't have to if I don't want to. I'm the godaime and my word is law."

He replied petulantly, pout on his face as he burrowed further into the pillows.

Naruto's brow twitched, "And I am the rokudaime who was in charge far longer than you were. Now, up!" she pulled off the blankets and hoisted him over her shoulder. It wouldn't have been an issue in her future body but since she was still short, it wasn't easy at all.

Yet she still carried him, placed him in front of his breakfast, fed him, and forced him to take a shower then get dressed before she shunshined the two of them to the office. She would have given Shisui a kiss goodbye but the Uchiha was too busy laughing his ass off for her to give him one.

She sighed as sat on the desk beside Kakashi. She couldn't help laugh about it now, their roles were now reversed. "What's so funny?" asked a moody Hokage who sat with his arms crossed and a pout on his face.

She gave him a smile and whispered low so the ANBU in the room wouldn't hear, "It just reminds me of the many times I'd be working and you'd just sit right where I am now, and whenever someone came in you pretended to be helping me but Shika knew you weren't- he also called you out on it every time."

His eyes softened as he looked at her, "Feel free to do just that. You and Shisui can just sit here and do nothing whilst I work, I won't mind" she shook her head, her smile permanently there.

"I don't mind helping. It won't be hard to transfer the memories into you afterwards and besides." she leaned closer and lifted his hitai-ate, tracing his scar, "We can make an army of shadow-clones do all the work."

Kakashi blinked and behind her, she heard a thunk. Turning around she saw the sandaime who was hunched over and his pipe on the floor. "Naruto Uzumaki- Namikaze…" he muttered and she knew exactly what was irritating the old man.

"You know Jiji, you're supposed to be the professor so I'm shocked that you didn't think about that one yourself." She nodded sagely and barely dodged a bunch of senbon coming her way. She pointed to the sandaime as she landed over Kakashi's lap, "That, Jiji, was not nice." She gave him a stern look which was comical compared to the glare the old man was giving her.

"All that time, all that paperwork," he muttered and she knew he was mourning all the time he had been forced to do paperwork when he could have gotten a clone to do it for him.

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Several hours later and Naruto could be found with her legs crossed and eyes closed as she sat on the Hokage desk to the side, not wanting to be in the way of his work as she spoke to the nine bijuu and their jinchuriki.

 _'Oh come on Yagura! Saying kekkei-genkai are evil is like saying ninjutsu is evil!'_ groaned Naruto as she sat atop of Kurama's head.

 _'Hardly. They are different things._ ' replied the childlike kage, who was resting on top of his bijuu- Isobu the three tails- head.

 _'No they are not, lord mizukage.'_ Replied Yugito who was resting again Matatabi's tails.

 _'I don't belong to the Uchiha clan yet I have the Sharingan with full control. I don't belong to the kazekage clan but I can use magnet-release. I do not belong to the Senju clan yet I can use Mokuton. My affinity is wind and water yet I can use lightning, fire, and earth. I do not belong to any of the aforementioned clans yet I can use their kekkei-genkai. Will you have me killed?'_ Naruto asked, feeling annoyed that this matter was still unresolved.

She didn't receive an immediate reply but she dropped it nonetheless. For now. _'Killer B have you convinced A yet?'_

 _'My brother is stubborn as a mule but I got yo' back. He has a condition though.'_ He replied and Naruto was thankful he didn't reply in raps, those were harder to make sense out of.

 _'And that condition would be?'_ she waved a hand for him to continue.

 _'He wishes to have a spar against Minato Namikaze's heir, and see who is the faster out of the two of you.'_

Naruto's face was perfectly blank and her reply was dry, ' _He realizes I am the second coming of my father yes? I have the hiraishin and my normal speed isn't something to scoff at. Why would he challenge me to something he's going to lose?'_

The other jinchuriki and their bijuu chuckled, B and Gyuuki included and the man simply shrugged his shoulders. Sighing she looked at Han and Roshi, _'How are you two getting on with convincing the old man? I know it can't be easy, Onoki is as stubborn as a mule.'_ She shook her head thinking about those few years he had still been kage after she made rokudaime.

Roshi was the one to reply, _'Since we do not see him often it makes it harder but since word got out quickly about your heritage he said something similar, he wishes it to be a battle of jinchuriki. Han and myself versus the Kyuubi jinchuriki.'_

She shook her head and sighed, _'And when I win what will he do?'_

The others made no comment on her choice of word- when not if- she was certain she would win and none of them doubted it. It wasn't so much her own power that they knew she would overpower them with but the power of all nine of the tailed beasts whose chakra was inside of her.

Han continued for him, _'He stated he would be willing to sign a new treaty but he also said Iwa wouldn't sign it if they didn't agree with everything which was demanded.'_

Naruto massaged her head, _'Trust Onoki to make the most fuss out of all the kage.'_ Muttered Yugura and she had to nod in agreement. It was so typically Onoki.

 _'You've been awfully quiet over there Gaara. Is everything alright?'_ she asked when she hadn't heard a word from him since she first arrived outside of him greeting them all.

 _'My father, the kazekage, has spoken to the council about your demands and after this exam, they believe after the right training I will be made the godaime kazekage. However, that will take a few years.'_

She nodded with a large smile on her face, _'I can't wait to see you in the kazekage garbs again. But for the love of the Rikudo sennin do not cut your hair and do not comb it back or I will put a seal on your hair, keeping it messy.'_

Yugito and Utakata chuckled at her comment. _'Don't think I've forgotten about you, mister. Utakata, you've been as quiet as an Aburame.'_

He shrugged his shoulders, toying with the pipe in his hands, _'There is nothing for me to say.'_

She raised a brow and she realized how awkward it must be. He was in the same room as the Mizukage who wanted him dead for the assumed murder for his shisho. _'Yagura, I would like to clear this up right now so you can onto fixing this mess. Utakata did not kill Harusame. The man tried to extract Saiken from him but she accidentally killed him to stop him from killing her jinchuriki'_

 _'You're taking all the fun out of the hunt you know that right Naruto?'_ asked Yagura who crossed his arms, a pout on his face. The scar and pout reminding her of Kakashi and Shisui whom she had left on the outside world causing her to sigh, yet it couldn't be helped. These meetings were important and needed to be held in order for peace to reign.

 _'It's either that or innocent people get killed. Nagato has seen the light and Konan follows wherever he leads, Orochimaru is locked in a Konoha cell, Sasori is dead and has been given to Suna as a gift, Deidara no longer has his hands and I will give him to the Tsuchikage to do with as he wished, that should make him happy. Hidan, Kakazu, and Zetsu are the only ones that need dealing with. Kakazu we'll need to get all his hearts and Hidan will need to be dismembered and his remains scattered. Zetsu,'_ she sighed, not knowing what she was going to do with him without her brother soul.

 _'You will need Indra's reincarnation's to seal him away, will you not?_ ' asked Utakata and she nodded.

 _'Sasuke is here but I'm not sure how I can activate the power within him. I want to do it soon but I'm still not sure.'_

 _'Stop second guessing yourself and ask for help Naruto.'_ Snapped Killer B causing all eyes to fall on him. _'You have given us all our memories- courtesy of the sage of six paths- and you are currently all over the five nations. Instead of making it seem like you've done nothing think of the positives of what you have done. Once you've done that, think about how we can all help you.'_

 ** _'He has a point. You need to ask for help. You cannot do everything on your own forever.'_** Spoke Kurama shocking everyone in the room, he seemed to be asleep till now, however, it seems like he was listening after all.

 _'I'm used to not asking for help. Unless it's mentally, then I'm used to doing what needs to be done alone. I would never live with myself if something happened to anyone whilst doing something I should have been doing.'_

 _'We are not so fragile where we are unable to look after ourselves. We are all jinchuriki of the nine tailed beasts and have handled far more than_ ** _stress_** Spoke Gaara causing everyone to laugh in the room.


	29. Chapter 29

"You have won your match against my jinchuriki, what do you want now?" snapped an irate Tsuchikage as he released some of his KI, Naruto withheld a smirk at his antics.

"You already know what I want." She replied calmly. Beside her she could hear the racing heartbeat of Sasuke whereas Jiraiya's was calm.

The tsuchikage gave her an apprehensive look, "And how would I know this isn't a trap to take control of them?"

Naruto had to give it to her team, they managed to keep blank faces despite not knowing what the hell they're talking about. Without being asked to Naruto took a seat opposite Onoki and leaned back, "What would Konoha want with your jinchuriki? We already have the nine tails who is more powerful than the others. And besides, the bijuu's they host were given as peace offerings and that is why I am here. To help build peace that the five nations once had before the first war."

Onoki snorted and gave her a sneer, "Did you hear that Kurotsuchi? Minato Namikaze's heir has come to Iwa to bring _peace_." His voice was that of innocence and annoyance.

Naruto leaned forward and placed her hands under her chin, "Will you blame me for the sins of my father who I never met? In that case, should I destroy Iwa and Kiri as you and your sensei once did to Uzushigakure?" her eyes flashed red as she smirked at him.

He blanched and those around the Tsuchikage raised their weapons but did not attack, "You have some nerve to be so flippant with me little girl considering you cannot back it up."

Naruto flashed him her fangs, "You say I can't back it up yet you just saw me take down both of your jinchuriki's, two-to-one without breaking so much as a sweat. A kage just isn't that much in comparison to two bijuu and their jinchuriki." She shrugged her shoulders and Onoki's face went red with fury however he held back his tongue but not his KI, not that Naruto cared much for it.

She looked him in the eye and continued, "As I said before to yourself and your jinchuriki- I am here for peace. If I wanted war I would have killed Han and Roshi during the battle but I didn't. And besides-" she pointed a finger at him and turned her eyes back to blue, "-you gave your word you would sign a new treaty. We'll be sending an ambassador to and fro between our villages to work on the details." She stood up and everyone tensed, "Have a good day Tsuchikage." She gave a small bow and placed her hands on Sasuke and Jiariya to hiraishin them to the office in Konoha.

They all blinked at the sight. There was three Kakashi's in the room, all diligently doing paperwork and none of them noticed their flashy entrance. Sasuke cleared his throat with a fist in front of his mouth, "Hogake-sama?" he asked but didn't receive a reply.

"Kakashi?" asked Jiraiya but they still receive a reply as the three Kakashi's muttered under their breaths.

Both males looked to her and she shrugged her shoulder, "Koi?" Kakashi looked up instantly and her sweat dropped.

"When did you all get back?" he asked however he didn't dispel his clones as he leaned back in his chair.

Jiraiya was the one to answer, "We got here about a minute ago and tried to get your attention but you weren't listening."

Kakashi gave him a fake eye smile and Naruto frowned in worry, she hadn't seen him give one of those smiles in a while. "I was a bit preoccupied and it's not like you were trying to kill me, if you were I would have paid more attention." He looked at the three of them, eyes lingering on Naruto's form a bit longer, "How was the mission?"

Naruto's back straightened as she replied, "It went as well as it could have gone. There were no fights outside of the match between Han, Roshi and myself, I won the fight with minor injuries which have already healed. After that we had a short meeting with the Tsuchikage and I believe we should pester him about that treaty so he takes us seriously. He can't back out since he signed a deal beforehand and he knows it so it's only a matter of time." She shrugged her shoulders as Jiraiya handed him his written report. When he had made it was beyond her but she didn't dwell on that.

Kakashi gave the report a once over and nodded over to them, "Well done. Take the next two days off but Sasuke, Naruto- I need your written reports in by tomorrow evening." He waved his hand in a dismissal and the two males left, Naruto did not.

"I said you were dismissed." He repeated and Naruto simply looked to the ANBU in the room.

"Guys, give me and Kakashi a few minutes? You can stand outside the windows and doors if it makes you feel better." They looked at each other and nodded before doing as she suggested and Naruto activated a silencing seal around the room.

Kakashi looked up from the report he was reading with a bored look, "What is it Naruto?"

Instead of answering she looked him dead in the eye before moving over to where he was and raised her hand to remove his hitai-ate however his hand wrapped around her wrist, "Stop."

She glared at him, "Instead of asking what's wrong with me why don't you tell me what's wrong with you?" her other hand made quick work of his headband and her placed a kiss to the top of his scar. Removing his mask she cupped his cheeks, and waited for a reply and when she didn't receive one she spoke again, "Shisui, can you tell me what's wrong with him?" she asked her fiancé who was henged into a falcon.

He shook his head in bird form before changing into a human form, however he was under another henge to look pretty simple. "Danzo was here yesterday about his ROOT operatives. He wanted you to be a member and the war hawk refuses to accept no for an answer. Most likely he intends for you to be kidnapped and brainwashed into becoming one of his operatives." He shrugged his shoulders as if he didn't care and Naruto knew he didn't. She was capable of looking after herself.

Kakashi on the other hand looked about ready to commit a serial murder, Shisui then Danzo. Then maybe the council for agreeing with the crazy man for so many years. She wasn't too sure if she was honest.

She sighed as she sat on the desk, "Instead of worrying yourself to the grave over something so silly why don't we start up our little charade for Danzo to be executed? We can do it tomorrow and this way, by two weeks max he'll be dead and out of our hair. The only remaining problem would be Obito after that."

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Sasuke would never say it out loud, but he was enjoying himself immensely. Team 7, 10, Jiariya and the sandaime were all in the hokage office listening to the story Shisui was in the middle of telling them. In fact, his brother was due to make an appearance as well any minute now to back up the story they been told.

Team 7 had been informed the night before what Kakashi, Naruto and Shisui were going to do and Sasuke made it his mission to revel in it all. No doubt after everything that had happened, they would execute Danzo and the deaths of his family would be avenged and his remaining family would be at peace in Konoha together.

He looked at Sakura and saw she was holding back from laughing out loud, and Sasuke couldn't blame her. Shisui was laying everything on thick. That and the fact they had roped so many people into witnessing it made it even funnier.

Naruto and Kakashi on the other hand, their faces gave nothing away. The sandaime looked about ready to drink himself under the table or perhaps smoke himself to unconsciousness. He could practically hear the old leader mourning and rejoicing. Mourning because he was still doing kage roles even though he was retired and rejoicing because _he_ wouldn't be the one to be doing all the paperwork.

It didn't take long for his brother to join them and he backed up the story Shisui was telling them as well as scaring the crap out of everyone that didn't know the truth about his brother.

A half hour later Danzo was summoned to the office and as soon as he saw Shisui and Itachi he appeared ready to make a tactical retreat however Naruto restrained him with one of her tails further freaking the occupants in the room even if many didn't show it.

Not long later they had been dismissed, Danzo in a cell and Team 7 as well as Shisui were walking along a path to eat lunch together the air tense, confusing the youngest Uchiha. He had assumed when Shisui was made a citizen again things would be better but there seemed to be something weighing on Shisui and Kakashi's minds.

He raked through his brain for reasons why and the only conclusion he could come up with was Naruto however he knew for a fact they had come to some sort of an agreement.

' _So I'm not the only one seeing it then.'_ Sasuke withheld his surprise when he heard Naruto's voice in his head and simply carried on walking.

' _You'd have to be blind or oblivious not to see it.'_ He replied when they were stopped by some civilians wishing to talk to the godaime.

' _They're both keeping something from me and whilst I don't mind secrets since it comes with the occupation I can't help but think that it's… that it's something life changing._ ' Sasuke heard her mental struggle and the two of them tried to think harder.

' _Have you spoken to them about it?'_

' _I don't want to push them. I've pushed on so many things as it is…'_

' _Should I talk to them?'_

' _No. They both want to keep it amongst the two of them and I'll respect that. And besides, if they told you it'd be a burden on your shoulders as well.'_

Sasuke mentally sighed and really did jump when an unexpected voice spoke up, _'Have you considered it may have to do with that organisation? The one after the tailed beasts?'_ Sakura asked and he was glad no one saw him jump or he would never be able to live it down.

' _I'm sure if it had anything to do with Akatsuki they would-_ ' she stopped talking and they could sense another presence, one that set their backs straight. Sasuke could see Kyuubi as he and Naruto spoke to each other despite the fact he shouldn't be able to see them and thankfully he couldn't hear them.

Their three (or four?) way conversation ended there as they made their way to the restaurant. Part of Sasuke was focused on their current conversation the other part was thinking about things that were better left un-thought.

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Naruto raked her hands through her hair in frustration. Five months had passed since the first meeting with the Tsuchikage and the other kage however they had barely moved an inch with uniting the five nations.

Onoki didn't trust Kakashi nor Naruto, A didn't want anything to do with Kiri, Rasa wanted nothing to do with Iwa and Kiri wanted nothing to do with any of them but since Yagura was Mizukage, he was forcing the rest of Kiri to behave. It was times like his Naruto wished jinchuriki were kage in each of the nations.

Naruto hadn't thought peace would take this long to obtain considering when they had tried for peace in her time, they had gotten it after a single meeting. However, she mused, it had been on completely different terms then. They had been at war and about to face an eternity stuck in a genjutsu.

She knew the people she was seeing well, however these were not the same people she fought alongside with during the fourth war. These people wore the right faces, had the right souls, but they were different. She had been thoroughly shocked when Hinata and Kiba had been sighted together on a date the other day and even more shocked when Konan had sent word to her that she and Nagato were _lovers_.

She had been so shocked by the news she had signed the documents in the wrong places and had to write the whole damn things up from scratch.

However now she was considering throwing her poisoned kunai in their escorts chakra points and see how well he fares. Whenever they were in Iwa, Onoki made it a point to assign the most annoying division to them- The explosion Corps, and more specifically their captain.

The bastard made it a point to point out how much superior he was, how much more experienced he was, how he had done this or that which Naruto often chose to blank out. She didn't need to hear his war stories, didn't need to hear how he had been the one to set off the bombs at that had trapped Team Minato underground during their last mission together. Didn't need to hear how he was basically the one who had started the whole fiasco of her own time.

She often tried to think of other things, such as how she couldn't find Obito. He was in hiding, she expected as much, however she should have been able to sense his whereabouts which she couldn't. She could try harder by using the rikudou sennin's power she was gifted with but she knew Black Zetsu would be onto her if he sensed that, and it was going to be her trump card.

She shook her head, getting lost in thought wasn't going to get her anywhere. She had done all that could be done for right now and her focus should be on getting the five nations to agree to work together without conflict.

"Look I mean no disrespect but could we hasten the pace? We're all shinobi here but we're going at civilian speed." Spoke Naruto after finally having enough.

He stopped and slowly turned around, looking at her with disdain clear on his face, "There's no hurry Namikaze. We don't need to rush things."

Her brow twitched, "Since you called me by that name I will remind you the Namikaze's love speed. You're going at snail pace in comparison to what I'm used to."

He glared at her as he clenched his fists, "You are in Iwa, and you will listen to Iwa shinobi whilst you are here." He grit his teeth as his demeanour changed from irritated to calm. She mentally chuckled, it seemed he finally noticed he was showing his emotions.

Jiraiya however wasn't going to let it slide just like that, "Changing your demeanour doesn't really do much, Naruto and I can still sense your irritation, your anger and-" Naruto elbowed him in the gut, silencing him from continuing his sentence. Sure it was a fact, but that didn't mean he needed to rub it in his face.

She gave their escort a smile despite the man's glare, "Ignore him. He's had one too many sake bottles." Said escort glared at her godfather but carried on despite his interruption.

She sighed and rubbed her temples as they carried on. She understood where Jiraiya was coming from but they really didn't need this right now.

They travelled in silence from then but at least they went quicker and in five minutes they were in the apartments Konoha envoy had been offered during their stay in Iwa and the two gama sennin sat on the grounds with large sighs, finally rid of their guard.

Jiraiya got up after that and went to take a shower whereas Naruto focused on the seal she had just taken out of her pocket. _'What's up?'_ the sudden sound of Shisui's voice caused her to jump.

Closing her eyes and breathing to calm her heartbeat she replied, _'Nothing much. Just got into the rooms.'_

' _That sure took time,'_

' _Our bastard of an escort was taking his own sweet time getting us there.'_

' _Hmmm…'_

She quirked a brow as she got out her ink and brush, _'Is everything alright with you? You sound a bit...'_ she wasn't sure how to word it. He sounded tiered but it was more than that. When she didn't receive a reply and paused her hand movement, _'Shisui?'_

' _Huh? Oh. Yeah I'm fine. Kakashi had me running ragged with all the paperwork. He's doing it but he's making it a mess once it's done.'_ He groaned and she couldn't help but smile.

' _When I was hokage, Shikamaru would say I made a mess of the paperwork thanks to all the kagebunshin that I used. That and whenever we had someone come in the first thing they would see was four different versions of me with desks and piles of paperwork.'_ She chuckled as she recalled one of the many times when Shikamaru would enter the office with a foreign dignitary and they both would apologise and relocated the meeting.

' _Are you talking about me?_ ' asked Kakashi in a sing song voice and she could practically feel Shisui mentally smacking Kakashi over the head.

' _Focus on not making a mess of the paperwork, hokage-sama.'_

' _Maa maa Shisui-kun. There's no need for formalities_ and _smacking me over the head is there?_ '

' _ **If it were me you were annoying I would have bitten you. Be happy the Uchiha's aren't ones for biting,**_ ' she shook her head when Kurama decided to join their little debate and decided to leave them to it, focusing instead on the seal.

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It had been a whole year and a half since Naruto had been sent to the past and she was pleased with a few things and not so pleased with other things- things which Kurama often told her to stop worrying about since she couldn't exactly do anything about them.

An underlying problem that often showed its ugly face during her sleep was Obito and Zetsu. She assumed the duo were hiding in another dimension and without Sasuke to transport her to other dimensions, she couldn't do anything about it.

She had tried to use her perfected version of the hiraishin however even though it was perfected, she needed her chakra to have touched the person, thing or place she intended to teleport to, and in this case, neither of them had been touched by her chakra.

Because of that she had tried a different method. She tried to use a different seal array to hiraishin to where a different chakra signature was however no matter how skilled she was, no matter how much power she had of the Rikudo sennin, even she was unable to copy his chakra signature to a T.

She was sure she could ask Kakashi, or anyone with the sharingan who had met either of the two criminals however that wasn't going to happen anytime soon. Itachi was currently undergoing surgery and recovery for his chronic illness and along with Shisui he was getting an eye transplant- both mangekyo wielders were going to swap each-other's eyes to make sure they didn't go blind like Itachi had in her time.

Asking Kakashi to do it wasn't possible since he had never seen Obito with his sharingan activated as an adult- his chakra would have changed with his mental state.

She also doubted the Uchiha's were able to copy chakra signatures, the only one she knew who could had been her Sasuke and he had had the rinnegan and the rikudo sennin's power on his side. _Oh and he wasn't even here_.

She sighed, Sasuke not being here but a damper on her progress but she wasn't complaining, she wasn't in any rush. The peace treaty was going very, very good between the five nations and apparently Zabuza made a very good diplomat when he needed to be since he was the first dignitary to settle peace in his designated country.

Kiri had signed the treaty with Konoha, Suna and Kumo but they were cautious of Iwa still.

Suna had signed their treaty with Konoha, Kumo and Kiri but Rasa was still arguing about petty thing with Onoki in Iwa.

Kumo had signed a treaty with all of them surprisingly- well not really. Killer B was very persuasive with A when he wanted to be.

Konoha had signed their treaty with everyone besides Iwa. Honestly, it felt like Iwa was purposefully making life harder since they had signed their treaty with everyone besides Konoha.

Unlike previous treaties where everyone would sign a single document, each country gave their own treaties to each of the nations to sign, so that each country would get exactly what they wanted from a different country and once all of them had signed all the small documents they needed to come together and sign a much larger treaty that explained in detail what each country would be getting.

Naruto liked this method and so had the other nations when it had been voiced out by Mei, Yagura's assistant. It was odd to see the busty lady not be Mizukage but it was also hilarious to see her try and flirt with Rasa, Yagura, Kakashi, Shisui, Baki and a few other people as well.

It had been funnier when Mei had walked in on Kakashi, Naruto and Shisui all taking a dip- naked- together in the onsen and she had finally understood what was going on. Needless to say she was unable to look any of them in the eyes for a few days.

Of course it didn't stop her from hooking her fellow female kage (not really?) on a blind date with a very much eligible and suitable bachelor in Konoha during one of her visits to Konoha. She would never forget Raido's face when he had been pushed- literally- onto the dual kekkei-genkai wielders chest and not so surprisingly the two of them had hit it off. In fact, if rumours and Naruto's nose as well as her sensory abilities were to be trusted, the two of them wouldn't be _just_ the two of them for very long.

It often made her wistful thinking about family and how much her life changed when she was sent to the past. She had a family now, one that had a lot more Uchiha's in it than it originally had had and she couldn't be happier. Well she could be, but she wasn't complaining. She loved how everything was now and wasn't going to ask anymore from her two lovers.

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"Do you intend to tell her soon Shisui?" asked Kakashi as he signed another document his assistant/friend handed him, knowing the Uchiha knew _exactly_ what he was referring to.

Said friend sighed as he shook his head, "I don't want to tell her at all if at all possible. If she knew she'd try everything she could to prevent it from happening but there's nothing she or anybody else can do and it would just be a complete waste of her time as she thinks of ways to stop it." He shrugged his shoulders, not because he didn't care but because he was resigned to his fate.

If Kakashi was honest he liked Shisui a lot, much like he had liked Itachi when he had joined ANBU. They were similar yet so different. He could see parts of himself in Shisui but he could see parts of others inside Shisui as well that it was impossible not to like the bubbly Uchiha.

"I'm not saying it's not important because it is but I don't see the point about worrying over spilled milk when we have bigger fish to fry." Shisui continued, looking pointedly at the stack of papers in his hand that Kakashi needed to sign. It was noticeably smaller than the piles the sandaime and Minato-sensei had on their desks and that was a small victory. At least he was good at the job.

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Naruto was mentally checking if she had ever been in such an awkward position before and she didn't think she had been and she was sure it was the same case for Kakashi.

Kiba, the loveable idiot that he was, decided it would be a good idea for everyone and their significant others from the rookie nine to join up. Of course that also meant for Naruto that Kakashi and Shisui were supposed to attend but Shisui had been forced to go back to the hospital due to catching a really bad virus that was affecting his chakra network.

She had fussed over not going and staying with him but of course he had insisted he would be alright and Kakashi had also reassured her, saying there was nothing she could really do since she couldn't heal, just remake.

Kiba seemed to be the only one in the rookie nine that was oblivious to the tension in the room. After all her significant other just so happened to be their Godaime hokage, her jonin instructor and thirteen years their senior.

She waved to Kiba from across the room and he came over, large smile plastered on his face, "Hey guys, enjoying the mini party?"

The reason for the very impromptu party was it just so happened to be Naruto's 14th birthday. She had arrived at age 12, turned 13 within a few months and was once again 14.

She gave her old friend a smile, "We love the party. Thank-you for actually throwing me one. I don't usually spend my birthday with anyone other than Sasuke and sometimes with my old ANBU guards. So thanks." There was a slight pause of hesitation in her voice. Kiba meant well but she felt a need to speak up, "I love that you called the rookie nine together with our significant others but… the only adult here is Kakashi."

She gave him a look and realisation dawned on his face as he scratched the back of his neck impishly, "You didn't really know our jonin sensei and I didn't want you to feel awkward and all."

She gave his shoulder a reassuring squeeze, "And I love you for it Kiba. And I'm not complaining, everything is perfect really. But it does make things a little awkward. He can't leave because it's my birthday party and people are watching. As the hokage and my lover he has to be on good terms with me or the council will deem him unfit to be kage. If he leaves the party for any other reason than official business they'll throw a hissy fit over the fact he left. Now it wouldn't bother me, the fact that Kakashi even came makes me happy enough- and the fact you thought to invite him makes me happier.

"They already don't like the fact he is my lover, they think he's after power which isn't the case. I can see everyone is enjoying themselves but in future if we have get-together's… can we invite the jonin sensei's as well so he wouldn't be the elephant in the room. Or just no adults. Then it could be just us teens." She gave a wink and shivered when said jonin sensei ran his fingers down the back of her neck.

Kiba nodded his head in understanding, looking to his hokage with a sheepish grin, "Sorry, I didn't think about that really."

Kakashi gave him an understanding smile, "It's not really a bother. But I'm sure if we threw another party it would include more people. You're all… great but…" Naruto lightly hit him on the chest, leaning over to kiss his cheek knowing exactly where he was going with that sentence.

Kiba furrowed his brows, "I really didn't think it'd bother you since we're all Naruto's age."

Before either of them could tell him not to worry and what was done is done they were interrupted by an ANBU operative coming over to them. If memory served correctly then it was Yugao under that mask.

"Is there a problem?" asked Kakashi in a bored voice but she could hear the underlying tenseness in his voice, reaching over her hands to rub his shoulders.

Yugao bowed to him, "Forgive us, Lord Hokage however there is a foreign jinchuriki here who wishes to see you and Naruto-hime."

It was incredible to watch Kakashi go from a little bit on edge to ready to hide her away in the underground basement they had. "Utakata I assume?" asked Naruto as she leaned over, her cheek rested against Kakashi's shoulder.

Yugao didn't answer, looking at Kiba who immediately got the hint and left after saying he'd inform everyone they would be leaving soon.

"Indeed. How did you know?" she asked when Kiba was out of ear shot.

She shrugged her shoulders, "He contacted me last week sometime saying he wanted to come over. I've already filled in the necessary forms for him to stay for a maximum of a month before he has to return to active duty on Kiri."

Yugao looked back to Kakashi who sipped his sake, "Allow him in the village. Escort him to an apartment or Inn and inform him I expect him in the office tomorrow at… 10 o'clock. That should be enough time for him."

When they left his shoulder deflated and he sagged against the sofa, hand running up and down her mark before pulling down his mask to kiss it. "Can we go home? Aaaah… first we should see Shisui _then_ go home. Maybe check if he can come with us as well. I'm sure he's sick of being in the hospital." He mused as he bit at her neck.

She smiled, running her finger through his hair and nodded. "Yeah, let's do that."

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 **A/N – peeks out from behind a tower of books. I hope you enjoyed it! –goes back to hiding and wallowing.**


	30. Chapter 30

_**Half a year later. (Naruto is 15 turning 16. Kakashi is 27 and Shisui is 18)**_

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Naruto jolted up with a start. She had been sleeping well as of late and hadn't been expecting another dream with the rikudo sennin. Slowly as to not wake up Kakashi, she made her way out of the bed and out of the room, into the study where her fuinjutsu brush set laid.

It had been a present from Itachi for her last birthday and quite frankly, it was her favourite present of the year- mainly because it was her own set. Kakashi had given her Minato's and Kushina's sets which were tied with Itachi's present.

Hastily she drew the seal he had shown her in her dream and once it was finished she looked to it nervously. For quite a long time she had wanted to give Sasuke his memories back in order to actively search other dimensions for Obito however now that she looked at the seal which would allow her to do so she felt conflicted.

 _This_ Sasuke, whilst nowhere near as powerful as _her_ Sasuke, was happy. He had his brother, he had another clan member. He had the undivided trust of the people. He was even dating someone- that had been a very big wakeup call for her.

The moment she had seen Sasuke holding Kurotsuchi's hand the only thoughts in her head had been on how they were going to avoid Onoki's wrath. The girl was two years older than them but had a very child-like attitude sometimes which Naruto assumed made it easier for her and Sasuke to click the way they did.

Leaning back in her chair she turned around when she heard a squawk and saw a crow.

Itachi.

Opening the balcony door she let the Uchiha in and watched as he leaned against the bookshelf and she leaned against her desk. Neither of them said anything and it was Naruto who broke the silence, "What's bought you here so late at night?" she asked as he usually was at home with Sasuke at this time.

His eyes gave nothing away however his reply was almost immediate, "I was on duty approximately an hour ago and began to just fly around when I saw your light on and became worried. Why are you awake so late at night, hime?"

At the question her gaze flickered to the seal array beside her before she looked back to him, hoping he hadn't seen however _this_ Itachi wasn't blind.

He quirked a perfectly sculpted brow at her and she sighed, "I… had a dream about the rikudou sennin and this seal. If I use it properly, it would give Sasuke all his memories and powers back from when I was sent back here from, but…"

"But you do not wish to use it as my little brother has more now than he ever had under your rule."

She bit her lip and nodded her head. Her eyes were downcast so she didn't notice him moving to her till his hands were on her shoulders, his eyes fixed on her cerulean ones. "I may not have lived to see it all through, however I am sure with the paths my brother had taken, the life he lived was the life he chose and his happiness was his own. It may not be the same happiness he has now, however the two Sasuke's are different people. The first had defected and tried to kill you, this one is your brother in arms from the start."

He stopped there and allowed his words to resonate within her. Itachi had always been the wisest person she knew, second being Kakashi, however Itachi didn't hold bias towards her- only to his brother.

Releasing her shoulders he took a step back, "Ultimately, the choice will be yours, however I am certain my brother will hold no animosity towards you, no matter what decision you make."

Naruto looked up quickly, "But what about his feelings for Kurotsuchi? They've been together for a year nearly and I don't want him coming back to ruin it."

His eyes softened as he leaned once again against the bookshelf, "Will this seal remove the memories he has made here?" she shook her head, no, and he continued, "Then there should be no reason why my foolish little brother would not still feel the same for Onoki's granddaughter." Naruto nodded slowly. "Go back to sleep, Rokudaime-sama." She blanched at the use of her previous title and just as she did so, he transformed once again and left.

Sighing, she locked the seal away and headed back to bed, praying a solution would arise in her dreams.

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Naruto wasn't very sure what she was looking at, but from what she could make out of it, it made her want to puke.

"It could use a bit of improving here or there but I think I got it right for the most part, right Naruto?" asked a very happy Sakura, however Naruto wasn't sure why the pinkette was so happy. The seal she had just presented the Uzumaki looked horrendous.

Slowly Naruto looked up from the seal, face blank, and asked, "Sakura… where did you learn about this seal?"

The grin on her teammates face never dimmed as she reached into her pouch for a book which Naruto didn't care enough to read the title of. Reaching over she took the book and flicked through it. Upon finding out what she needed to know, she burnt it with the Amerterasu.

Sakura's indignant yells could be heard all over the street they were walking down but Naruto really couldn't care. "What the hell was that for Naruto?!"

She levelled Sakura with another blank stare before burning the seal she had been given as well. "That book was a load of rubbish and this seal is as pathetic as the one originally placed on Gaara. Whoever wrote that book should be burnt at the stake for blasphemous acts against fuinjutsu."

Sasuke grinned at her whereas Sakura continued to look incredulous. "That doesn't mean you burn the book! I need to return it to the library."

Naruto nodded to herself before replying, "You know what, Sakura. Take one of my clones with you to the library and the two of you can deal with it together. I'd do it personally however Shisui just got back to the village and I need to be there for the debriefing of his missions." She gave her two teammates a half-hearted salute before hiraishining to the office where Shisui and Itachi stood side by side.

"See anything interesting during your mission anata?" she asked as she gave him a kiss of the cheek before taking a seat on Kakashi's desk.

"As I was explaining to Kakashi, I saw nothing out of the norm. Everyone and everything was the way it usually is. I even spoke to quite a few locals, they haven't seen or heard anything suspicious."

She quirked a brow at that, "Buuuut…."

"But they did happen to let it slip that the village will be going through some sort of election soon over who should be the next ruler of Ame. There had apparently been some sort of civil conflict about that. Nagato is one of the candidates however no one who knows is stating who the second person is."

Her hands clenched into fists, she would have thought it was Obito if it wasn't for the fact she couldn't sense him anywhere. It had been nearly one and a half years since he had gone into hiding and not once had he come out of whatever dimension he was in.

Just as she thought she had an idea of who it could possibly be, a purple and black void appeared in the room and a few seconds later, out came Sasuke. He gave everyone a nod in greeting before talking, "I've gone to eighteen different dimension this last week making it a total of thirty-one dimensions I have scoured, and I'm still unable to find either of them."

Naruto grit her teeth before easing her shoulders, "Everything here is the same as you left. No one seems to have noticed your clone is a clone and Kurotsuchi is due here as per usual within two days. Shisui just got back from Ame and debriefed us of his mission. Do you have any idea on who Ame would elect for their leader outside of Nagato?"

Sasuke chuckled before replying, "Nagato is ensuring he wins the election. It will be him and Pein." His thoughts drifted to the other part of Naruto's statement and a small smile found its way to his face.

Naruto quirked a brow, a wily smile on her face knowing exactly what sasuke's smile was for however chose not to comment on it. She was happy that his feelings for the dark haired Iwa kunoichi hadn't changed despite his old memories being returned to him.

A small chuckle escaped her as well once Sasuke's words registered in her brain, "Wait. Nagato is using Yahiko's body with his own mind to be used against him in an election?" it was an absurd idea but it sort of made sense. Pain offered a different sort of peace in comparison to the peace Nagato could offer and this way he left it to the people to decide which version of peace they want.

Kakashi and Shisui's reactions had been to plant their palms firmly on their foreheads. Shaking her head she leaned back slightly, craning her neck to the side, "And on a completely different note. Yagura started training Mei and is going to make her the next mizukage. In my time she was made mizukage due to Yagura being killed so this should be entertaining. Also, I'll be going with Roshi, Han, Utakata and Gaara all at once with Killer B to turtleback Island to train them properly."

Naruto wasn't sure why but all men in the room stiffened, "When?" they all asked simultaneously but she decided not to ask why.

"Tomorrow some time. They'll all inform me when they're ready and we'll teleport there with the hiraishin. I'm not sure how long we'll be. There's a few of them in comparison to when _I_ went. When I went it was just me and I only took a couple days if less. It might be harder for Roshi and Han since they're a lot older and have a lot more crap on their plates."

She shrugged her shoulders, it didn't really matter to her when she got back as long as she wasn't gone for more than a month. She still planned on searching for Zetsu whilst on the Island and this way it would give her a chance to be on sea and look for him.

There was only one place she hadn't checked and if she found the bastard there she was going to flip. Uzushiogakure was not a place where her senjutsu was capable of reaching. If she found the two of them there, she was going to inflict a pain of a thousand deaths upon them.

"You didn't feel the need to tell us this sooner?" asked Shisui with a brow raised, arms crossed in front of him.

"I did inform you boys. I informed you via paperwork. If it was all complete then you'd already know." She smirked at him and watched his eyes widened before looking to Kakashi, glaring at the man who simply closed both eyes and chuckled.

Raising his hands in a surrender motion he replied, "I haven't seen that document anywhere. So either it went missing or someone misplaced it before it could reach me."

Naruto didn't think she had ever seen Shisui move so quickly, not even in combat, as he searched the room. When he couldn't find the document anywhere in the room he left the room and searched where Naruto assumed was the secretary's desk and the room filled with the hokage's paperwork.

"Is there anything I need to do, hokage-sama?" asked Itachi and both Naruto and Kakashi turned to him however it was Kakashi who replied.

"Yes, in fact you do. I need you to go home and rest up. You may have been given the clear however Tsunade-sama said you needed to take it easy- which you haven't been." Bowing, Itachi bid them farewell and left the room.

Reaching out her senjutsu she tried to read Itachi and found nothing out of the norm. _That_ was what had been concerning her as of late. Everyone went through changes, even if their body had fully grown, their internal organs and chakra system were always working- especially if you were a shinobi.

What was concerning her was the lack of change in Itachi- it could only mean either his organs weren't working properly or his chakra system wasn't working the way it should. She made a mental note to bring it up with Tsunade later.

She left the room, stating she was going to out train Konohamaru and his team some stealth lessons in the forest of death.

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Kakashi looked to his eldest student who was leaning against his bookshelf, arms crossed as he flexed his left hand. "You haven't told her, have you Kakashi?" he asked, his eyes focused on the picture Kakashi kept in his desk. It was of Naruto, head down and focused on her fuinjutsu she was drawing on her arm.

"No." his voice had taken a hard edge, he had no intention of letting Naruto know.

"This is the same thing that happened last time. No one told Naruto there was going to be a war and they had sent her off to train. The war was to protect her and our survival however she finished training faster than everyone had expected and she came to everyone's rescue." He replied in a flat tone.

"Is there a point to this?" he asked as he took out some papers to sign. They had the digital method however some things needed to be paper form.

Most things.

"My point is- no matter how much you shelter her, try to keep her out of things and protect her- she will come and be the one to save our arses. Why not make this easier on all of us and have her there from the start?"

Kakashi wheeled around upon hearing this, eye ablaze as he regarded his student, "Tell her that despite all our efforts to stop Akatsuki, after all her efforts to prevent what happened in your time everything has been pointless? That there will be a war? I don't doubt her capabilities. I know she can _level_ the nations if she wanted to."

"Then why not?" his voice held curiosity yet his face remained stoic, a feature all veteran shinobi were capable of.

Kakashi sighed as he leaned back in to his chair, "She… I…" he couldn't seem to get his words out, stuck in his throat as they also were unable to form in his mind.

Sasuke shook his head, "You don't know? Or can't say? Perhaps you can't _bring_ yourself to say why." Kakashi looked down at his hands clenched around the desk, both eyes glaring despite one being covered. "You think she's pregnant." It was a statement, not a question. A testimony to show how much he knew them, and he knew them very well.

Leaning back he looked back at his student and nodded. "You think she isn't." was the kage's reply.

"Our souls are tied by brotherhood of the rikudou sennins sons. Whilst I'm unable to use senjutsu to the level of Naruto's prowess- or the prowess of any sage- I am able to sense _some_ things. My rennigan also allows me to see better as well. I know she isn't pregnant." Kakashi waited, knowing his student had something to add, "I spoke to Tsunade. What Naruto is going through is a phantom pregnancy."

Kakashi's brow rose, "Phantom pregnancy?"

"Naruto may be in the body of a 15 year old but she could technically be counted as a 23 year old. She's always wanted a family, and now things have settled, mostly, she's able to have them. Of course her body just wants to be pregnant, yet her better judgement is not allowing herself to be pregnant."

Kakashi allowed that information to sink in. he knew what a phantom pregnancy was, it was a phenomenon that occurred often enough with kunoichi. What Kakashi found shocking was that Naruto wanted a family so young. Granted, she was mentally a lot older than she looked so it shouldn't have really come as a surprise to him.

"Is she aware that it's a phantom pregnancy and not an actual one?" he asked, wondering if she thought so, why she wouldn't say anything.

"I can't answer that since I don't know. Naruto… she kept your relationship hidden from all of us for so many years but she said in the end. She won't tell me anything personal but I know she would have told you, or Shisui. She's not accustomed to keeping secrets from you, sensei." Kakashi nodded and gave his student a smile.

It wasn't often you would catch Sasuke using any form of honorific if it wasn't placed to the highest ranking.

He went back to work after that, mulling over the beginning of their conversation. He now knew he had no excuse- no valid one that is-to keep Naruto out of this possible war.

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Naruto was sitting at the dinner table with Shisui that same evening as Kakashi said he had work to attend to at the office. Well that was what he had said, however as soon as they had washed and packed the dishes, preparing a box of food to take to Kakashi in the office the godaime entered their home, clad in his kage robes.

His eyes were firmly on Naruto however he did give a meaningful stare at Shisui. Well, she assumed it was meaningful since the Uchiha bowed and left the room via shunshin.

She sat down as she watched Kakashi pacing, following his movements with crease in her forehead. She allowed him time to gather his words as it wasn't very often one could find the man like this.

Finally he stopped and placed his hands on the table ledge, bent over slightly as he looked at her. "What I'm about to tell you is very important and I want you to know I have not- _we have not_ kept this from you out of malice but out of concern for your safety." He paused and Naruto nodded her head in understanding. This wasn't her lover, this was her hokage. "Myself and the other kage have been gathering information and keeping an eye on the other villages and clans. All of us have come to the conclusion that there will be a revolt from the smaller villages. The one hosting this revolt- as we are calling it- are Kawagakure. There are other villages, Ishi, Uta and Yu."

Naruto was certain she had a blank face on. Kakashi was acting as if this wasn't information she didn't already know. "You realise I have a spy network going across the entirety of the five nations, right? Granted, it's not a large as ero-sennin's however it is still big. I'm already aware there are people within the villages planning a coup."

Kakashi withheld a sigh, "Yes, I know you're aware of that. What you're not aware of is they have banded together and plan to unite under one flag in order to- quote unquote- destroy the village who sit on the wallets."

It was a situation in which Naruto felt like laughing due to the stupidity of it all. The third war had started because of the revolts the smaller villages had planned and now it was happening all over again. The people may say shinobi are stupid however shinobi were not the ones causing them their problems.

"Did the villages give any specific reason as to why they suddenly don't agree with us? Other than what you've just said of course."

"They stated that we were growing too powerful and that there had been talk from the higher ups stating that they were planning a war so in order to stop us from going to war, they are going to start a war."

Naruto felt like going over to each of these people and hitting their heads with the blunt end of her kunai. Common sense was apparently not with the _common people_.

She was very sure there had been no such uprising in her own time and she doubted that she had caused that much change in which the people would despise the changes going on around them.

Her eyes flashed red and she slammed her closed fist onto the table, "I'm going to find that son of bitch and tear him limb by limb." She spat out, venom lacing her words as she knew _exactly_ what had caused this uprising and it had nothing to do with what Kakashi was saying.

"Huh?" she heard him mutter, clearly he didn't get Naruto's way of thinking, which she understood perfectly considering she had a very odd and unique way of thinking.

"Obito and Zetsu." She spat out through clenched teeth. Her nails began to turn to claws as Kurama's rage fed her own, her vision tinting red before a set of hands covered her eyes and she took laboured breaths to calm down.

"Care to explain what's going on Kakashi?"

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 **A/N I really have no excuse. Well I do- I have several but I don't feel like stating them because there are too many. But what I will say is that it's all been weighing down on me and I've been trying to take a break from everything and August seems to have allowed me that.**

 **Another thing I will say is I currently have no beta as she's going through some stuff irl.**


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